


Found

by wingsofthenight



Series: Found [1]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dante is Nero's dad AU, Fluff, Gen, Language, Some angst, he has a bit of a mouth, mainly from the six year old
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2019-06-16 19:03:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 61,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15443757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsofthenight/pseuds/wingsofthenight
Summary: Dante didn't really expect to find out he had a six year old kid. Nero didn't expect to ever have a home. But maybe... maybe they can work things out together and figure out what it's like to have a family again.(Or, the AU where Dante is Nero's dad and learns about him before all the crap in Fortuna goes down.)





	1. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Information is found and father and son meet for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, explanation: When I first got into DMC a few months ago, one of the first fanfics I read was Like Father, Like Son. That fanfic’s stuck with me this long and since I felt like Nero needs a break and there’s not enough of this AU around, I decided to write it just for my own enjoyment and then decided to subject you guys to it.
> 
> Seriously though, Nero needs a break. I mean, we don’t know for sure if the guy in the trailer is Vergil or not, but the fact that no one is really disputing the fact that it could be him that rips his own son’s arm off should say something. Also Dante really needs a family member that won’t try to kill him every time they meet and unless Eva somehow gets revived he’s a little out of luck with that. Well, Sparda probably won't try to kill him, but Dante would probably still shoot him because while he's made his peace with the fact that his dad didn't just abandon them he probably would still take the chance to get some sort of payback so it's a bit of a moot point.
> 
> On the timeline: Dante and Vergil were eight when Eva died and they were separated, and eighteen when the events of 3 happened a couple weeks after their birthday in October because Vergil really wanted their dad’s power as a present. Nero was born the following September. This starts in June, Nero is six and Dante twenty-five.

Finding out just how comprehensive the orphanage’s records were was both relieving and frustrating.

Relieving because it gave Serena an easier time tracking down some of the children’s families to hopefully get some of them out before the orphanage closed and they were moved to that damned island, but frustrating because all of this should have been taken care of _years_ ago and saved these children so much grief.

Not for the first time she cursed her predecessor’s absentmindedness.

She sighed, placing her head in her hands after getting yet another failed number. So much of the information they did have was too out of date to be of any sort of use. And even some of the ones that weren’t led to people that were dead or unable or, worse of all, unwilling to take in a kid.

There were a few that were ecstatic though, thankfully. Just the other day she had reunited an older couple with the grandchild they had never heard of before. They had had no contact with their daughter for years, and though the entire meeting was ringed with sadness upon finding out that their child was dead, they did finally find closure and were fully willing to take in their grandchild and give the young girl a home.

There wasn’t as many of those reunions as she would like, but the ones that were… at least they took away some of the sorrow that came after each failed number.

After taking a long drink of her unfortunately lukewarm coffee, she went back to searching through the files she had. Unfortunately, the next few had very little relevant information. Well, she did find out that Kevin was allergic to shellfish, but they hardly ever had that and it wasn’t helping her in her quest.

The real surprise came when she came to Nero’s file.

The note left in her predecessor’s atrocious handwriting said that he had been left on their steps in a black blanket with the following papers tucked in with him. The note also mentioned seeing a figure dash away in the distance once she had picked up the child and looked up.

None of that was very shocking to her. Nero wasn’t the first one she’d found out that this had happened to. The fact that the presumptive mother stuck around long enough to make sure someone had found him did make her believe that any information she found would be true though.

The first couple of papers she found contained the normal things listed in an unfamiliar handwriting: birthdate, birth weight, all the normal things that go on birth certificates. She found that next, though it left both parents names blank.

She figured that the mother was left blank because no one could find her- the handwritten papers conveniently left out where Nero was born or any helpful information to find her- but the father’s… that should have been filled in.

The next sheet was a half piece of paper with a different handwriting listing the number for a business called Devil May Cry with the same handwriting as the other papers having made a note saying “Father of the child- Dante Williams.”

Serena stared in disbelief at the sheet. Why did no one see this and try contacting the man or at least put his name down on the birth certificate? The other information she had indicated the child would have been a few days old upon arriving here, so the mother had to have been reasonably sure that he was the father. She knew that Carina had a bad track record with actually doing anything with the information she had on the children’s families, but this…

She shook her head, trying to dispel the thoughts. Getting angry at a dead woman would do nothing.

The business name sounded somewhat familiar, so she tried to focus on that instead. She had never dealt with a place named that, she knew that for sure, so where had she heard it before?

Her cousin! A couple of years ago, she mentioned that the place she was working at was having problems with a couple of very persistent demons and they had contacted the place and got the man there to take care of them, which he had apparently done with ease. She had recommended him if she ever ran into problems with demons or the like.

She frowned at the memory. Devil hunting wasn’t a profession she imagined someone raising a child in. And there was the fact that with all the odd things about Nero… no, do _not_ go down that route. You’ll only make things worse. But… would it be a good idea to contact this Dante and tell him? It may not end well.

But if she didn’t… when this orphanage closes, the children were more than likely going to be sent to Fortuna. It was the closest place that would be able to care for them. That option may be even worse if the suspicions she refused to let take hold in her mind were true.

There was also the fact that it was possible that this man had the same _thing_ going on as Nero. And if that was true, who was she to deprive him of the possibility of having someone that accepted him? The poor kid already hadn’t had the best childhood here. If sending him to this man could help him…

Her mind made up, she reached for the phone and dialed the number on the sheet of paper.

Just as she was thinking that the phone wouldn’t be picked up and she’d have to try again if there was no voicemail set up, it was picked up and a man answered, “Devil May Cry.”

Well, at least she knew the information was right. “Yes. Is this Dante Williams?”

A pause. “Who’s asking?”

“My name is Serena. I’m the current head of the Astonville Orphanage-“

She was cut off by a sigh. “Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t have any money to give-“

“I’m not looking for money,” she returned the favor and cut him off, “this will be a shock to you, I know, but I found your contact information with one of our children and it seems like the mother of the child had listed you as the father.”

There was an extremely long pause. Just as she was wondering if she should hang up and try to call back later, he said in a slightly shaky voice, “Are you sure?”

“I can’t be completely unless I see you, but our records indicate that Nero- the child- was a few days old when he was dropped off, so I assume the mother had reason to believe that you were the parent.”

“What does the kid look like?”

“White hair- yes, it is natural- blue eyes, pale skin, though he doesn’t seem to be albino.”

The man laughed humorously. “Yeah, she probably did have reason to believe I’m the- how old is the kid?”

“He is six, turns seven in September.”

“And I’m just now hearing-“ he started heatedly, before taking a deep breath and instead asking through what sounded like clenched teeth, “Where is he? Where’s this orphanage?”

Well, she could do without the anger, but it was warranted, so she gave him the address. “I’ll be there tomorrow,” he said once she had finished, immediately hanging up on her.

“I guess that this is a good sign, him coming,” Serena muttered to herself. She carefully put all the information back in the file, setting it aside for tomorrow.

She hoped that she wasn’t making a mistake, but at this point it might be too late to fix it.

* * *

 

Dante was honestly shocked he remembered to grab his coat and guns before rushing out the door. He was pretty sure he forgot to lock the door behind him, but it’s not like he had anything valuable besides his Devil Arms and good luck stealing those. Rebellion was the only major one not locked up and the last time someone tried to take her from him their arm almost completely detached when the sword suddenly became heavier than a ship.

It wasn’t that he was all that shocked that he had a kid. He would be the first to admit that he got around, and no matter how careful he was there was always the possibility of the stuff not working, which is why he tried to leave his contact information with the women because he really didn’t want a kid to go through the same childhood that he had.

No, what was getting to him was the fact that the kid was _six._ He’d lived his whole life in a freaking orphanage, and while he had somehow dodged that bullet and never gone to one himself he’d seen what could happen to some of the kids in them. He didn’t know what he would do if he found out his son had been mistreated by the workers there, and he hoped he wouldn’t find out.

There was also the fact that the orphanage was located too close to that damned island. Okay, Dante knew nothing about Fortuna other than the fact that it hosted a cult that worshiped his father (reason enough to avoid the entire area like the plague in his opinion), but Sparda’s own grandson having anything to do with them?

Dante tried forcing himself to take deep breaths and focus on the road. It may be more or less empty this late, but he really didn’t need to get in a wreck and figure out how to explain why all his injuries were already healed yet again. That had somehow only happened once, but one time had been too many times.

…Would the kid have inherited his healing? It was extremely helpful, but it definitely raised some flags to the people that didn’t know about the fact that he was half-devil.

Finally, after at least an hour of speeding and failing to keep his mind off of all the little things, Dante pulled into an empty parking lot for some sort of closed restaurant. He cut the engine and leaned his head against the wheel, trying to breathe and not start hyperventilating.

What was he going to with the kid? He had no idea how to take care of one. His life honestly sucked and he’s not sure if he would wish it on anyone except the demons that murdered his mother. He had a woman that tried to force him to pay for the motorcycle that would have been destroyed regardless of what he did when that damned tower fell. He was not in the best of professions, and even without taking into account who his father was any kid of his would be a target once the demons after him found out that he had a kid. He should have just hung up when the woman said she was from an orphanage and went about his life oblivious. Hell, he should just turn around and drink enough to make him think this was all just a cruel dream.

Except he couldn’t.

Now that he knew about his son, he couldn’t leave him there, to have what could turn out to be an even worse life than Dante had had.

The kid was at least a quarter devil. Who knows how that would affect him as he got older. Finding out that he wasn’t fully human… if he didn’t take the kid in and break it to him and help him through it, who knows what would happen to him. Even when he had let the trauma he’d gone through make him forget, he had unconsciously known what he was. He’d known since birth, more or less. It was his fault his son didn’t- he should have kept a better eye on the people he had sex with, no matter how messed up he had been after Temen-ni-gru, so he felt the need to make it right as much as he could.

Most of all, he _couldn’t_ leave him there.

Dante couldn’t tell if it was some normal human instinct to make sure his son was okay or something from the other side of his DNA or if it was both mixing together. He honestly didn’t care which it was. No matter what would come, he’d never forgive himself for leaving his son there. He had to take his son back with him, to bring him _home._

(Who knows? Maybe it would make him feel like he has a home again. It’d been almost twenty years since he felt like he had one.)

(Maybe… maybe he needed this kid more than the kid would ever need someone as screwed up as he was.)

Dante breathed in one last time, feeling somewhat calmed down now. He put the car back in gear and sped off in the direction he needed to go.

_What did the woman say his name was again? Nero? Heh. Ironic given the hair, but not a bad name. Not a bad one at all._

* * *

 

Yet another day of boredom. The worst part was that someone had broke the antenna so Nero couldn’t even put on something until someone noticed that he had it on when he wasn’t supposed to and came to lecture him about it and force him to interact with the other kids that would of course just ignore him.

He shifted, curling up a little more on the couch. He was fine being alone. Everyone disliked him already and nothing would change that, so maybe it was a good thing. No one would notice he wasn’t around until dinner now, and that meant food so that was fine.

Nero finally settled on laying face down on the couch, hoping his boredom would just let him take a nap instead of making him stare at the wall. It would be a better way to pass the time before dinner.

He was almost to that point when something jolted him awake, his head immediately shooting up to stare at the door.

Someone was here. He had no idea how he knew that. Even his way better than everyone else’s hearing hadn’t picked up on anything. He just _knew_ that someone was here, like some sort of… what was it called, sixth sense? Whatever the feeling was, it was telling him to go to this person.

The six-year-old tried to ignore it. For all he knew it could be nothing. Even if it was something, why would they want anything to do with him? He really didn’t want them to have anything to do with him after all of course, so why would someone want him?

Unfortunately, that feeling refused to go away. It just got more and more insistent the longer he tried to ignore it. Combined with his complete and utter boredom, it was only a few minutes before he growled and stomped over to the door, yanking it open and stalking down the hall, following the feeling.

Nero wasn’t surprised that it led him to Miss Serena’s office. Anyone that wasn’t a creep or a repair guy (or both as one occasion everyone tried to forget had shown) went there first. Despite the door being closed, he could hear two voices within. One he recognized as Miss Serena’s, having heard it too many times, usually when he was being lectured about something stupid. The other was a man, but one he’d never heard before. His curiosity piqued, he crept closer to the door, trying to keep as quiet as possible so they wouldn’t hear him.

“-to know why I’m only finding out about the kid now,” he heard the man say in what sounded like an annoyed tone as soon as he got close enough.

“I don’t know,” he heard Miss Serena reply to him. “He was left on our doorstep when he was only a few days old. The mother didn’t stick around to explain-“

“You’ve had my information this whole time. It took you six years to contact me. I want to know why.”

Nero blinked at that, quickly shaking his head to dispel the hope that tried to rise at the man’s words. He wasn’t the only six-year-old here. He had to mean one of the other boys.

Miss Serena’s sigh drew him from his thoughts. “Carina- my predecessor- was both extremely organized and yet the most scatterbrained person I’ve met in my life. She kept most everything related to the children but kept forgetting to do anything about it.”

“Then why couldn’t you bother doing something? And why the hell was she in charge to begin with?”

“She was the only one that wanted the job. I’ve only been here for a little over a year and a half and technically shouldn’t be in charge, but most of our staff is only temporary and are even less qualified. Besides, she was amazing at limiting visits from those damned Fortunans and their cult about a demon of all things, which was more than enough reason to keep her around if you ask me.”

Wait, did that mean that they could have gotten _more_ visits from that fucking priest that kept talking about their so called “Savior?” Suddenly, Nero felt a little guilty for all the grief he had given Miss Carina. Literally the only good thing about those visits was the food they brought. He hadn’t been the only one avoiding people when those visits happened.

The man chuckled a bit at that. “Yeah, I guess that would be a good reason to let her stick around.”

“You’ve met some of them before?”

“Nope. Heard enough to know I never want anything to do with them though.”

Several moments passed in silence. “You’re going to take him with you?”

“Yes.” The man replied without any hesitation.

Another pause. “You should know some things then.”

After a few moments where she was probably waiting for the man to reply, she continued, “He doesn’t get sick.”

“Why are you making that sound like a bad thing? With all the kids you got here it seems like you’d be relieved that there’s one healthy kid you don’t have to worry about. I mean, I’m healthy and don’t get sick either and it’s really just a plus.”

“Oh, it is, I don’t mean to imply it’s not. It’s just weird when almost every single other kid and even some of the staff are bedridden from a bad case of the flu, but no matter how long he’s exposed nothing ever happens. Besides, compared to all the other weird things…”

Nero froze, losing track of the conversation.

He remembered that incident. Not happily considering he’d been conscripted into helping, but he did. Most everyone else got at least a cough from it, but he’d been completely fine. It made the other kids ignore him even more because it just confirmed their suspicions. But they couldn’t be talking about him.

They _couldn’t._

He was kicked out of his thoughts when he heard the man raise his voice, a dangerous tone entering his voice. “So all of you just sit around and let the kid get bullied and ignored by all the other kids just for being a little different?! What the hell is wrong with all of you! You’re supposed to care for all of these kids!”

“We try! Occasionally our attempts to help him get along with the others works, but things just go back to the way they were before too easily. We have too many kids and not enough staff to keep things up. There’s a reason I immediately got in touch with you when I found your information in Nero’s-“

The moment he heard his name, Nero immediately recoiled from the door, backing up into a chair and crying out as he fell to the floor. He didn’t even register the fact that the two people in the office had gone silent. All he could think of was the emotions running though his head.

He had no idea what to think about all of this. They were talking about him. That man in there was his- he couldn’t bring himself to think of that word. Besides, it wouldn’t last. He may have _said_ that he wanted to take him, but the moment he saw him he’d change his mind. No one wanted him. He was too weird, too different. No one would ever want him.

The boy didn’t hear the office door open, didn’t notice Miss Serena’s head peek out the door until she said in surprise, “Nero?”

He looked up at her without really seeing her. He heard her sigh before walking fully out into the hallway. “You heard our conversation.”

It wasn’t a question, but Nero nodded anyway. He saw her open her mouth to say something but was cut off by the man walking into the hallway.

The first thought that went through his head was that at least he knew where he got his white hair from now. At least there was one positive thing from all this.

The second thought… well, his mind was kind of a mess after that so it got mixed up with all the others.

It was only when Miss Serena cleared her throat loudly that Nero was able to wrench his eyes from the icy blue eyes that seemed so much like his own despite being so much lighter.

“Nero, this is Dante Williams, your father. I finally found his contact information yesterday.”

She stood there for a few moments, waiting to see if either of them would say something. When they stayed silent, she just shook her head and told them that she would be in her office if they needed her.

Even when the door had closed, neither of them said anything. Nero tried his best to avoid the man’s- Dante’s (he sure as hell wasn’t about to call him dad, that would make things worse when the inevitable happened)- piercing gaze. Instead, he just stared at the red leather coat he was wearing, trying to clear his mind.

Eventually, Dante sighed and asked, “I heard you fall. You okay?”

That snapped Nero out of it. “Am I okay?” he laughed a little hysterically. “Six fucking years and you ask if I’m _okay?!_ You _bastard!”_

Dante flinched. “Kid, I-“

“Don’t give me some bull about you not knowing! You should have known! You should have been there!”

He could feel the tears gathering at the corner of his eyes but tried to force them back down. He could cry later when he left and there was no one to see and he could feel weak in peace.

“You left me here! You abandoned me! Why the hell did you bother coming? You’ll just leave like everyone else always-“

His words died in his throat as Dante knelt in front of him, meeting his eyes with his regretful ones and placing his hands on his shoulders. It was only the shock that kept him from shrugging them off.

No one had touched him in such a friendly way for as long as he could remember.

“I’m sorry,” the man said softly. “It doesn’t help, I know that, but I swear I had no idea you existed until last night and after that I came straight here. Pretty sure I forgot to lock the door actually. And I swear that I won’t leave you here. You’re mine, my son.”

Nero stared at him. He had to be lying. He _had_ to be. There was no way anyone could want him.

Despite his best efforts, a tear escaped his eye. Dante reached out and wiped it away before saying, “I’m not lying. If you come with me, I swear I won’t leave. You’ll be safe. Can’t promise you’ll have everything you want and that I won’t unintentionally screw up because I’m definitely screwed up myself, but you’ll have a home.”

Home. He’d heard that word in all the stories he’d heard. More than anything that’s what he wanted.

Dante pulled him into his arms just as the single tear turned into flat out sobbing. He held onto the red coat so tightly as he buried his head in his chest that he had no idea how he wasn’t tearing it.

They stayed there for several minutes, comforting and being comforted. Eventually, Nero’s tears started to trail off. “I’m such a sissy,” he muttered into the man’s chest.

“Why do you think that?”

“I’m crying. That’s what weak people do.”

At that, Dante pulled him back far enough to look him in the eye. Wiping some of the tear tracks away, he told him, “You’re wrong. It means you’re human, Nero.”

Nero didn’t know what to say to that. After a moment, he instead said, “I’m weird. I freak people out.

Dante snorted at that, shaking his head with a small smile on his face. “Believe me kid, I’m plenty weird myself. Maybe I can even help you with that.”

The six-year-old kind of doubted that. He didn’t even know what about him freaked him out so why would this man? He had no idea how to tell the man that though.

(There was also the fact that his gut was telling him that he could help and had all of the answers, but that just made him even more confused.)

“Do you want to come with me?” Dante asked, moving one of his hands from his shoulders to cup his cheek.

Not trusting himself to speak, Nero nodded, a couple more tears escaping as he sniffled.

He was rewarded by the man giving a genuine smile and hugging him again. After a moment of surprise- this was the most he had been hugged in years- he returned it.

He still didn’t completely believe that this wasn’t something temporary, that he wouldn’t just be dropped off somewhere when the man got sick of him, but for now,,, for now he let himself believe that he would have a home.

* * *

 

Dante hadn’t been what Serena had expected.

Most of the other devil hunters she had met were… well, not parent material was putting it lightly. Sure, there were some exceptions, but they were too few. It was just as well that most of them made sure they could never have kids.

She had suspected this man was different upon finding the information and the subsequent phone call, but seeing him with Nero… well, she was pleasantly surprised.

She hadn’t heard all of what transpired in the hallway, wanting to give the two some privacy, but she had heard enough to make her glad she had taken a chance and called. Seeing the way he got irritated when Nero had mentioned that he didn’t have anyone he wanted to say goodbye to only strengthened the feeling.

She watched from the window as the two of them drove away little over an hour later after taking care of all the paperwork and all the other miscellaneous things, neither of them looking back as far as she could tell.

She smiled. At least she knew that she had helped another one of the kids. Hopefully Nero wouldn’t be the last one she was able to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have the feeling that Dante is slightly OOC here but let's face it his characterization slightly changes every game and he just found out he has a kid so hopefully it's fine.
> 
> …I have a surprisingly good backstory for Serena, a character that will probably never actually show up again?? Why did this happen??
> 
> Also this is probably the longest chapter I’ve wrote ever, published or not. I must really like fluff…
> 
> Anyway, if you guys are curious, yes, the orphanage does close down not too long after this, meaning Nero would get sent to Fortuna and things would pretty much go the way they did leading up to 4. Poor Nero. At least he got that fate averted this time around.
> 
> Also, yes, the games (or 1 and 4) will be covered. 4 heavily AU obviously, but still. I haven’t decided on the anime yet. It feels that for the later episodes I’d just be retreading what happened in the fanfic I mentioned earlier. I might incorporate some of the events in the fic though. I haven’t decided. 2 and 5 probably won’t happen unless I get enough ideas from 5 to make a sequel or something since I do plan on having the ending point be after the events at Fortuna.
> 
> Anyway, feel free to review if you want! Especially if I made some sort of error, I tried to look through but I might have missed something.


	2. Hard Explanations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two of them get back home. Things get explained and Nero finds out that Dante wasn’t lying when he said he was weird too.

For what might be the first time in his life, Dante couldn’t think of anything to say.

(No, the apocalypse wasn’t coming. Still got a few years for that.)

Honestly, he was kind of surprised that he only lost the words when they got to his car and drove off. He definitely wasn’t complaining that he’d figured out what to say to Nero when he needed to, don’t get him wrong, but he wasn’t good with emotional stuff so it was almost a miracle he didn’t put his foot in his mouth at some point.

Dante had known he was here for his son, but it hadn't completely seemed real until he got there. He’d felt the kid the moment he stepped into the building, proving that he inherited _something_ from him. Or did it? He could just be sensing him because he’s his son. Then again, considering who his dad was and everything that the devil hunter himself could do, it would be a little worrying if Nero didn’t inherit any demonic power from him.

Besides, once he got past the way the kid smelled a lot like him (not all that surprising, he’d noticed that children smelled kind of like their parents, which was _weird,_ especially when you’re pretty sure they had no idea they were related and telling them would be uncomfortable for multiple reasons) he had the same kind of scent that he remembered from Vergil, the one that smelled both human and devil at the same time. Actually, it was the like the exact same ratio of human to devil that Vergil and presumably he himself had. Shouldn’t he smell more human? He’d definitely remember if he screwed someone with any major devil blood so that was out…

“Is there any air conditioning in this stupid car? It’s too hot!”

Dante snorted, the kid's voice bringing him out of his thoughts. “Sorry kid, but it won’t help much. A/C has sucked since I first got the car and getting it fixed would cost too much.”

Nero just grumbled, slouching in his seat and glaring out the window. The half-devil just smirked and returned to watching the road, quickly getting lost in his thoughts again.

He still had no idea what to do with the kid. The fact that he’d gotten this far without some massive screw up was seriously a miracle. Which was weird because he didn’t believe in miracles at this point, or at least not ones that would help him. Then again, he hadn’t told Nero that he was at least a quarter devil, so there was still plenty of time for that to happen.

Dante sighed internally. He really wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. He wished he could avoid it for as long as possible, but with his luck that’d just make it worse.

They stayed in silence for most of the drive. Dante really wished that he could think of something, anything to say, but nothing came to mind. He was too afraid of saying something wrong and driving his kid away. Not only was he his son, he was the last remaining member of his family. If he rejected him and left he didn’t know what he’d do.

The downright depressing route his thoughts were going down was thankfully interrupted by Nero’s stomach rumbling. Loud. Dante immediately turned his head to look at him. The kid looked down at his stomach, looked up at his father, and turned red in embarrassment. The man couldn’t help it, he laughed.

“Shut up!” Nero yelled, rubbing his nose with his left hand, a gesture that Dante found adorable.

Still chuckling, the devil hunter reached over and ruffled his son’s hair, not deterred in the slightest when he tried to swat his hand away. “There’s a town coming up soon, just hang on until then and I’ll go through a drive thru and pick up some burgers or something.”

“A drive thru?” Nero asked in surprise.

“Yeah, I’d say we could go in and sit down but I’d rather get home before midnight.”

“How far away do you live?”

“With the way I drive, probably a little under nine hours from that place as long as we don’t get stuck in traffic.” Which he had that morning. Stupid people that can’t drive and not get in wrecks… At least it had made him stop and get something to eat for breakfast…

“How many tickets have you gotten?”

“Why, you worried about me being hounded with debt?”

“You do seem like that kind of person.”

Dante couldn’t help but snort at that. He was enjoying this “argument” with his kid. “Nah, just got a certain Lady hounding me about a destroyed bike that wasn’t even my fault. With you here though I should have leverage to make her finally shut up about it so I’m debt free.” Wasn’t that a wonderful thought?

Nero let out a hum before staring back out the window,

It was only about ten more minutes before Dante pulled into the drive thru of a fast food place. “Anything in particular you want?” he asked as they waited for the car ahead of them order. Nero shook his head, staring at the restaurant with big eyes.

 _Right. The kid probably hasn’t been to one of these before..._ Attempting to force the guilt he felt away, he ended up ordering seven burgers and four large fries. Probably too much, but he could eat a lot and hadn’t had lunch and he had his suspicions that his kid was like him in that department.

Said suspicions were confirmed when Nero practically inhaled the first burger and a quarter of one of the fries while they waited at the light to get back on the main road. Dante couldn’t help but laugh. “If there was any doubt that you were mine…” he got out when the six-year-old cocked his head at him with a confused expression. Nero just rolled his eyes and kept eating.

They stayed in silence most of the rest of the drive, only getting into a bit of an argument about who got the last burger. (Dante let Nero win that one.) It wasn’t as bad of a silence as before though, considering it was partially because Nero fell asleep with only a couple hours to go. Dante couldn’t blame him. If he didn’t have to drive he’d be asleep too. He hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before and while he could go a few days without sleep and be more or less fine that didn’t mean he liked to.

They finally entered Capulet a little after 10 pm, leaving only about a ten minute drive before they got back to his shop. Nero didn’t wake up when he cut the engine after pulling into the alley next to the shop. He debated about letting him sleep and just carrying him in, but he didn’t know how the kid would react to that. Better to not take the chance.

Nero sleepily glared at him when he was shaken awake. “What the hell old man?”

Dante raised an eyebrow at him. “’Old man?’ I’m only twenty-five kid.”

“That’s old. And quit calling me kid!”

“Nope, you are a kid, so unlike you calling me an old man it’s actually accurate.”

Said kid just glared at him and dragged himself out of the car. Dante chuckled, grabbing the kid’s bag from the backseat and following, overtaking him before he could open the door. (Which he had forgotten to lock as he'd thought.) He peered in the door, making sure that no one had broken in and trashed the place while he was out, before opening it fully and herding his son in.

Nero stared at the main room in surprise and possibly a little awe. “What do you do?”

“You’re going to have to be a little more specific there, kid.”

Nero shot him a glare before moving farther in the room to get a better look at everything. “Why are there a bunch of demon heads and weapons hanging around?”

“How do you know that those are demon heads? Not many people believe in them.” He didn’t understand why they didn’t. People were blind and dumb apparently.

“Blame that stupid preacher from Fortuna,” Nero muttered. “I hate that guy. There’s no way half of what he said could be true. Seriously, demons existing was probably the only true thing that came out of his mouth.”

Dante couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. Partially out of relief that he didn’t have to try and convince his son that demons were real, partially out of even greater relief that the kid didn’t worship his grandfather, but mostly because he too doubted that anything the priest said was true even if he'd never heard him himself. Once he had composed himself enough to notice the confused look his son was sending him, he explained, “Probably was. The whole Sparda legend gets more and more mythicized every year, so a cult would probably be even worse about getting any of the facts straight.”

“Wait, Sparda was actually real?

“Yep. He was.” _Please don’t ask for more details about him... I really don’t want to get into that particular thing yet…_

“Oh.”

They stayed in silence for a few moments before Dante started herding Nero towards the staircase and the upper floor. “Come on, you probably want a shower now before you go to bed. You can use mine tonight; I have a spare room, but there’s tons of crap in it I need to clear out first. Don’t worry, the sheets are clean, I just swapped them out yesterday.”

“Wait! Where are you going to sleep? And you haven’t told me what you do yet!”

Damn. He was hoping the kid would forget to ask again. He was kind of touched he was worrying about him though. “I’ll just sleep on the couch, won’t be the first or last time and it’s just for the night. And I promise I’ll explain everything tomorrow, better to do it when you won’t fall asleep in the middle.”

“I won’t fall asleep!”

“Tell that to your snoring in the car.”

“I don’t snore!”

Dante just snickered, ruffling the kid’s hair. Nero tried to smack his hand away, immediately trying to fix his hair. “Bathroom’s here,” he said, opening the second door on the left. “Take as long as you want, just get the smell of that stupid air freshener they used off you.”

He handed Nero his bag, ignoring the weird look he was given. Thankfully, Nero didn’t ask, just locked the door behind him. A minute later, Dante heard the shower start as he entered his room to make sure it was clean enough.

The devil hunter had just gotten back into the hallway after dumping a small pile of dirty clothes by his washing machine to clean in the next couple days when he saw his son leave the bedroom in a pair of too big pajamas. Damn, he looked adorable in those. He really hoped he would never actually say that out loud near other people, he’d never hear the end of it, even if anyone that didn't think he was adorable was blind or lying through their teeth.

“You could’ve taken a longer one if you wanted,” Dante pointed out. “Hot showers are the one thing I’m willing to spend a fortune on.” Well, that and pizza and nice bed related stuff at least.

Nero just looked at the floor, unconsciously rubbing his nose in embarrassment again.

Seriously, the kid’s cuteness was going to be the death of him.

Dante reached out and ruffled his hair again, unable to stop himself from closing his eyes as he took in the clean scent of his son, confirming that he was alright.

It was weird. A lot of demons relied on scent, he knew that, but other than checking for demons (who he mainly just sensed the aura of) and making sure that leftovers were okay to eat, he had never thought himself to be the type. Probably some weird instinct from his devil blood to make sure his offspring was okay. Hopefully it was nothing to worry about.

Noticing that Nero had opened his mouth with yet another confused look on his face, probably to question the whole sniffing thing, Dante grabbed his son, carried him into the bedroom, placed him on the bed, and began to tuck him in all before the kid could process what had happened. “What are you doing?” the six-year-old yelped.

“Tucking you in kid.” Kids liked that, right? He did back when his mom was alive at least, and that was the only experience he had to fall back on.

All Nero did was look at him confused. It honestly broke his heart a little. The orphanage hadn’t looked _that_ bad, but there hadn’t been near enough workers to show everyone affection. Not to mention the way the other kids had apparently treated him… It almost seemed like Nero had had a worse life than Dante himself had at that age. Sure, his dad had gotten himself killed and they had been on the run, but he had at least had his mother and Vergil. Nero hadn’t had anyone.

Well, he had him now. The only way someone would get him to leave would be killing him, and considering the amount of times he’d gotten stabbed in vital places that was definitely easier said than done.

Impulsively, Dante reached over and gave Nero a hug, not letting go when he felt the boy stiffen in his arms. After several long moments, he relaxed and hesitatingly returned the hug. The devil hunter wasn’t in the most comfortable of positions, but he’d be damned if he pulled away now. Besides, he’d been in worse.

Finally, after a few minutes, he felt Nero yawn against his chest. Gently pulling away, he smiled at his son, running his hand through his hair.

“Get some sleep,” he said softly, pulling the covers tighter around his kid. “I’ll be just downstairs. Wake me if you need anything, I won’t be mad. Good night.”

Figuring the kid was almost fully asleep, Dante started to stand up only to be stopped by a small hand grabbing his. “Good night,” came the sleepy reply before the hand let go. He smiled, ruffling the boy’s hair one last time before leaving the room.

He had intended to stay up a little longer and try to figure out the best way to explain things tomorrow, but he must have been more exhausted than he had thought because the moment he laid down on the couch and covered himself with a blanket he couldn’t stop his eyes from closing.

* * *

 

Nero was extremely confused when he woke up.

He was laying on a really comfortable bed with really soft sheets. While he wasn’t complaining about that, the ones he was used to were… well, they weren’t really bad, but they definitely weren’t great either. He was also completely alone in the room, couldn’t sense anyone else close. The only person he felt around was definitely in another room, probably on a lower floor. The person also felt kind of weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, just a way he wasn’t used to.

Finally opening his eyes, he found himself in a strange room. It wasn’t anything special (he thinks at least) outside of the nice, big bed with comfy sheets, just plain tan walls and worn furniture, but it sure wasn’t anything close to what he was used to.

Blinking in confusion, Nero’s eyes widened when he remembered what had happened the day before. Immediately, he all but flew out of the bed and down the hall, taking the steps two at a time before bursting into the main room, stopping cold upon seeing the man sprawled out on the couch.

“It wasn’t a dream…” he breathed. Slowly, the six-year-old walked towards the white-haired man, hesitatingly reaching out a hand to touch him, immediately retracting said hand when the man tensed and his eyes shot open to look at him before relaxing.

“Oh, just you Nero,” Dante mumbled. He yawned and stretched. “Everything okay kid?”

After a moment of staring, Nero finally answered, “No. You keep calling me kid old man. And I’m starving.”

“You are a kid, we’ve been through this.” Did he just roll his eyes at him? “And I think there’s some leftover pizza from a couple days ago in the fridge. If you want anything else you’ll have to wait until we go out later.”

Now Nero was the one to roll his eyes. “Lazy.”

“Hey, things have been busy this week! Haven’t had the time to even think about getting anything else! Anyway, kitchen is past that hallway over there. I’ll be there once I take a shower so you better leave me a couple pieces.”

The six-year-old rolled his eyes again (he had a feeling that it would be a common occurrence) and made his way over to the kitchen.

The kitchen was on the left side of the hallway and looked pretty decent all things considered, if suspiciously bare as if it didn’t get used all that often. Part of the fairly large room was also taken up by what looked like a bar which just gave him questions he wasn’t sure he wanted answers to.

The right wall had three doors in it and being the curious person Nero was, he decided to take a look at them. The first door led to a small, narrow bathroom with barely enough room for a sink, toilet, and the tiniest shower stall he had ever seen. Why there was one down here to begin with was beyond him, the bathroom upstairs had a really spacious one and had a pretty big bathtub as well.

The second door led to a small bedroom with nothing more than a twin bed and some shelfing next to it that held… were those medical supplies? What the heck did he need those for? What the hell did Dante do for a living?

Shaking his head and resolving to get answers today, Nero turned his attention to the third door. The moment he put his hand on the knob, he felt _something_ travel up his arm and he wrenched his hand back. He hesitated before trying again, but nothing happened this time so he figured it had just been his imagination. The door didn’t open though unfortunately, so after trying for a little while longer to open it he finally gave up and decided to try to look for a key later.

Upon opening the fridge, Nero found that Dante hadn’t been lying. All that was in there was a pizza box and a couple water bottles. (He was kind of surprised by the water bottles to be honest.) The box did have five pieces in it, and he happily took one and practically gulped it down, not caring that it was cold. A second slice quickly followed the first.

It was the third slice that began to give him problems. It was stuck to the one beside it. He could just try and force them part, but that would probably tear it. Scowling, in annoyance, he set down the box and began to rummage through the drawers for a knife, finally finding a steak knife holding down… was that money? He shook his head, deciding not to question it, and went to cut the two slices apart.

Unfortunately, the blade was a lot sharper than he had assumed, and the knife cut through the pizza like paper, making it’s way even further to make a deep cut on his hand.

Nero immediately cried out, dropping the knife and covering the wound with his other hand. He heard footsteps race towards him, and before he knew it, a very worried Dante was kneeling in front of him, reaching out a hand towards his hand.

Panic rushed through him and he jolted away from the man. “It’s fine! It’s just a scratch! I was just surprised!” he frantically tried to convince the man. He couldn’t let his father find out about his weird healing. He’d decide he was too weird and wouldn’t want anything to do with him, just like everyone else had.

“Nero.” Said boy’s eyes shot to Dante’s at the worried way he said his name. “There was too much blood for it to just be a scratch. Let me see.”

Nero forced his eyes away, but didn’t resist when the man gently moved his other hand away from the wound. He shut his eyes, trying to brace himself for the rejection he knew was coming when the man saw the cut close in front of his eyes.

Instead, all he felt was a towel gently wipe off the blood on his hands before putting pressure on the cut itself. Nero’s eyes shot open to find the expected shock and disgust were nowhere to be found on Dante’s face. Instead, all he saw was worry and… resignation and guilt? Why were those there?

Neither of them spoke as they waited for the wound to close, but that left Nero’s mind free to wander. He wondered if the lack of surprise meant that his father had the answers as to why he healed so fast and all the other weird stuff about him.

* * *

 

Keeping all of his kitchen knifes sharp in case a demon caught him unawares in the kitchen had seemed like a great idea at the time. Now that said idea had caused his son to be hurt? Not so much.

When he had heard Nero cry out, Dante had panicked. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever moved as fast as he did then, which was saying something. Upon entering the kitchen, he’d barely kept himself together when he smelt the blood pouring out of the wound, and it had hut him a little when Nero had panicked and tried to write it off as just a little cut, terrified that he’d see it heal so fast.

Getting confirmation that Nero had inherited at least some of his more demonic powers was the only good thing about this incident, and he wasn’t necessarily all that happy about that.

Dante had made his peace with his devil blood, accepted that he wasn’t fully human, but how could he convince his son that he wasn’t damned because of the blood that ran through his veins? Vergil, his own twin, hadn’t been able to deal with it, had let his demonic instincts rule him, and he was- had been the only other half-blood he had met. Was it inevitable that his son would succumb to the same fate?

He barely kept the scowl on his face. Nero wouldn’t. Not if he had anything to say about it. He’d do everything in his power to keep that from happening.

That would require him to explain the whole half- or in this case quarter-devil thing. Which he still had no idea how to do.

Trying to get his thoughts in order, Dante stayed silent as he watched the wound close. It seemed to be healing slower than it would for him, but he did have fully awakened devil blood, was almost nineteen years older, and usually got hurt in the middle of battle so the adrenaline may make his healing factor kick in faster. Or something like that; he really didn’t care about the technicalities so long as everything healed right.

“Why?”

Dante looked up from the cut to Nero’s face, seeing the question written on his face. He sighed, closing his eyes to try and brace himself for the coming conversation. “It’s a long story kid.” He wiped his hand one last time, satisfied that it was fully healed, barely a pink line to show that he had been injured at all. “Let’s just say you inherited more from me than just the hair.”

Nero’s eyes went wide at that. “You heal fast too?” he asked, sounding hopeful.

The half-devil nodded. He made an impulsive decision and grabbed the knife, quickly wiping it off before making a shallow cut on the back of his arm, figuring that it would be easier to convince his son of everything if he saw proof for at least one thing.

The moment he saw the blood start to seep from the cut, Nero cried out, knocking the knife out of Dante’s hand and grabbing his arm, only to stop cold when he saw the cut almost immediately close. After a moment of staring he asked, “So I’m not weird? This is normal?”

“For us, yeah,” Dante replied, wiping off his arm before the blood dried. “Come on, let’s talk on the couch. More comfortable.”

After a slight detour to make sure the front door was locked, the two of them settled on the couch. Dante sighed, rubbing a hand across his face before looking back at the boy sitting next to him. Deciding to start with the easiest thing to explain, he started by saying, “I’m a devil hunter. The heads you see on the wall? Trophies I’ve gotten over the years. The weapons you see are all legit too, though I don’t use most of these for various reasons and keep most of my better ones locked away until I need them. The skulls do a good job of keeping thieves away, but can’t be too careful.” Though not for the reason someone’d probably expect. He didn’t know what would happen if someone tried to steal his Devil Arms and while it would probably be hilarious (especially if they tried to take Agni and Rudra) he didn’t want to deal with that.

Nero… didn’t really look surprised at that. Huh. Maybe the priest was a blessing in disguise in a way.

After a few moments, the boy asked, “So… all of this is because you hunt demons? That gives you fast healing and all that stuff?”

Dante shook his head. “No. Just hunting demons doesn’t give you stuff like what we have. It’s almost more accurate to say that I’m a devil hunter because I’m like this.”

Nero tilted his head to the side, yet another confused look on his face. “What the hell do you mean?”

…Where did the kid get such a mouth? He’d have thought they’d stop him from swearing all the time. Then again, he could already tell the kid would do the opposite of what someone says out of spite…

…and he was getting off topic. He really didn’t want to talk about this, but if he didn’t it would just make things worse in the future.

Forcing himself to bite the bullet, Dante finally explained, “I… the two of us are like this because my father- your grandfather- he was a devil himself. I’m half, you’re most likely a quarter.”

Nero’s face was frozen in shock. The half-devil couldn’t blame him. He could only imagine how much this was affecting him. He’d basically known from birth. His son hadn’t.

Not for the first time and more than likely not for the last, he cursed himself for not keeping a better eye on the people he screwed. If he’d known…

He was brought out of his thoughts when Nero lowered his voice and said in a small voice, “So I’m a monster.”

_“No.”_

Dante himself was surprised at the vehemence in his tone, but that didn’t stop him from reaching out and forcing his son to look at him. “No,” he repeated, softer. “Just because some of the blood running through us isn’t human doesn’t mean we’re monsters. It’s what we do that decides what we are.”

“How do you know that?” Nero asked desperately.

“I’ve seen what it looks like when someone decides to forget about being human. You’re not it, and I refuse to ever let you get to that point.”

He wasn’t lying. Dante knew that he would do everything in his power to make sure that his son wouldn’t turn out the same way that Vergil did. He’d figure out some way to help him reconcile the blood that ran through his veins.

“Besides,” he continued, “Sometimes I almost think humans are worse than demons. Demons are at least upfront about what they want from you. I’ve met some pretty despicable humans that are worse than the average demon.”

“How?”

Dante paused, debating about using the first example that came to mind. He wouldn’t mention any names, so she probably wouldn’t find out… “One guy I fought… he decided that he needed power. He sacrificed his wife to get it, and came close to doing the same with his daughter.” And that wasn’t even getting into the rest of the Temen-ni-gru incident. “Besides, there’s been good devils, or at least ones that don’t want to bother humans.”

“Like who? _Sparda?”_

Dante blinked at the tone he used. _Damn, that’s almost to the level of scorn I had towards my father until a few years ago… Just how pushy was that priest?_

Out loud, he answered, “Well, yeah, but he’s far from the only one. I’ve spared a few devils I’ve gotten calls about because they just wanted to live their life and weren’t going to harm anyone. That’s not all that common though, I mainly get calls about the mindless demons that pop up.”

Silence reigned for several minutes while Nero processed everything. Dante wanted to fill it, to say something more, but couldn’t think of what. Well, he could mention that Sparda was in fact his father, but given his feelings on the man it might be better to leave that particular bombshell for another day. Besides, he had made his peace with his father, but talking about him wasn’t something he was prepared to do. Not that he was prepared for this conversation, but there hadn’t been any way around this one.

“Was your dad like that?” All Nero received was a slightly confused look. “A good demon, I mean?”

Dante couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him. “Oh yeah, definitely,” he grinned. “I don’t have that many memories of him, but the fact that my mom- the biggest badass I’ve ever seen- willingly married him should say it all, but yeah, he was definitely a good devil.”

More silence followed. “They’re dead.”

“…Yeah.”

“Would… would they like me?”

Dante looked over at his son, seeing him look resolutely at the floor. He reached over, putting a hand on his shoulder. “They’d love you,” he said softly. “Mom would probably smack me, but she’d spoil you rotten and be ecstatic that she had a grandkid. My dad… well, he’d definitely be ecstatic and probably unintentionally disturb you with how happy he was to the point of trying to avoid him, in which case he’d pout and try to bribe you into liking him with a bunch of toys.”

Nero snorted at that. “You’re kidding.”

Dante shrugged. “Could be. But from what I remember about him it seems right.”

Yet another period of silence followed. This was getting ridiculous. He was, as Lady had put it once, unable to shut up if his life depended on it. He had taken offense to that- she knew better than anyone that if someone needed to get something off their chest he was actually a good listener- but he couldn’t deny that it was more than a little accurate. And yet he still had no idea what to say to his son.

Finally, he just sighed and admitted, “Look, I have no idea what to say. Never been in this situation before and hope this is the only time I am. Just ask anything, I’ll tell you what I know.”

And Nero didn’t say anything. Well, he was probably still processing everything so fair enough. He’d give him all the time he needed.

Finally, the boy said, in a small voice, “I don’t know what to ask.”

Dante gave him a tired smile and ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry about it. Lot to take in, I know. Feel free to ask when you think of anything, I’ll answer.”

Nero nodded at that, but didn’t reply, bringing the room back into silence yet again.

Somehow though, it didn’t seem near as uncomfortable when his son leaned against his chest, seeing comfort that he gladly gave to him, putting his arms around him, softly stroking his hair, and holding him for as long as he needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we get the hardest explanations out of the way.
> 
> Thank you for all of the comments and kudos! I didn’t expect so much just from one chapter, but I’m glad you guys love Smol!Nero and Dad!Dante, they’re the entire reason I started to write this.
> 
> I meant for the actual conversation to be from Nero's and not Dante's, but it was not turning out well so unfortunately you just get Dante's POV. Next chapter is all from Nero's perspective though so you'll get to see what he think about it all then.
> 
> It might be kind of surprising to you guys that Dante gets everything out this early. As I pointed out though, he knows that if he doesn't explain of his own accord something's going to come up and things would be worse. (Granted it was technically out of his hands in this, but point still stands.)
> 
> Next chapter will have more sad Nero because the characters hijacked my plans for fluff, but after that things will get better for the two of them. I mean three chapters from now will have a bunch of tooth rotting fluff so it might have been payment for that...
> 
> Also I kind of want to do an AU of an AU where Nero gets to meet Eva and Sparda and I guess Vergil since Eva would kick his butt for trying to raise hell and drag him back home?? Have I reached peak fanfiction writing yet? (Seriously though imagine Sparda as a grandpa. It would be hilarious.)
> 
> (Also please don't expect updates this quick, I just got it typed quicker than I thought I would.)


	3. On Demon Stuff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things get talked about, and it turns out that father and son are scared of the exact same thing.

The first question Nero thought of came several hours later when they went out.

Dante hadn’t been lying when he said they needed to go to the store. Apart from the food, apparently he wasn’t satisfied with Nero’s wardrobe and insisted that he needed better clothes and refused to listen to him when he tried to convince him that he’d be fine with what he had now. The six-year-old wasn’t sure how to feel about it. On one hand, he was happy that Dante cared enough to want to get him new stuff that should be a lot better than what he already had, but on the other, he felt really guilty about how much this would cost the man. He was also getting new blankets and sheets for his bed in the room that was already mostly cleared out. At least the man had decided the bed was good enough and he didn’t need a new mattress…

Anyway, they ended up going out to lunch to a small restaurant once both of them started getting hungry. Nero had to deal with the waitress cooing over how adorable he was and honestly still felt kind of humiliated. Dante hadn’t been any help, he just laughed at him. Things went fairly well after that incident was over until they got the bill. Dante almost cried upon seeing it, muttering something about how he’d have to take a bunch of shitty jobs to keep up with their bottomless stomachs. Nero had tried to apologize and say he’d stop eating as much, but the man had immediately shot that down, pointing out that the bill was as much his fault as it was his.

Nero was getting kind of annoyed that he couldn’t seem to win an argument against the man.

As they went back to the car though, Nero was distracted from his annoyance when he picked up on the weird feeling he was getting from Dante.

It wasn’t a bad one. Not at all, actually. The feeling, as weird as it was, actually made him feel safe and protected, like nothing would happen to him because Dante would make sure nothing would come near him.

He really wasn’t used to feeling like that.

(The small part of his mind that he kept trying to ignore told him not to get used to it, that no matter what he said he’ll leave like everyone else.)

Nice feeling or not though, it was still weird, and he had no idea what was causing it. It hadn’t really been there back ho- at the shop. Yeah there had been _something_ he’d subconsciously picked up on, but it hadn’t been near as strong.

Actually, considering how it seemed different than pretty much every other person he’d seen, was it something to do with the fact that he was half-demon? Everyone else he’d met had been fully human.

“What are you doing?” Nero finally asked after getting settled in his seat.

Dante turned to look at him. “Starting the car?”

Nero scowled. “Not that you idiot.”

“Then what? I doubt it’s my overwhelming sexiness you’re talking about and if it is we need to talk.”

The six-year-old all but screeched at that. “What the hell is wrong with you old man?!”

“Seriously kid, I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re going to have to tell me.”

“I’m talking about that weird- what the heck is that word- aura thing you’re doing! What the hell is that?”

Dante frowned. “Okay, two things. First, why did you use the world ‘heck’ and then immediately turn around and say ‘hell?’”

“Because I hecking felt like it.”

“And second, this aura you’re talking about, did you feel it earlier at home?”

“Think so, it’s just a lot stronger now.”

Dante frowned again. “Huh. So… how does it make you feel?”

Nero scowled. “Just tell me what it is.”

“I will, I just want to figure out something first.”

The boy looked down, fiddling his hands together. He didn’t want to answer the question, but he could feel those eyes staring at him, all but demanding an answer. Finally, he mumbled, “Safe. Like nothing’d hurt me because you’re here.”

He refused to look up, but heard the man make a noise of understanding. After a moment, his curiosity got the better of him, and he glanced up to see the man leaning back against his seat, looking ahead and thinking of something.  He looked back down before he could notice him staring.

After a moment, he heard Dante turn back towards him and say, “Okay. I think you’re just sensing my demonic aura.”

Nero blinked and looked back up. “Your what?”

“It’s… I have no idea how to explain this. I guess it’s kind of like you can sense my power. Or at least that’s how it works when I go looking for demons. Never felt my own for obvious reasons. Usually I do try to keep it dull so maybe I can sneak up on any demons.”

“It’s not dull.”

“Yeah, I got that. It’s probably because you’re here.”

Nero tilted his head in confusion. “Why would that make things any different?”

Dante shrugged. “Not sure, but I’ve noticed that demons get a lot easier to find around the time any offspring's usually born, so it might be something like that.”

The boy stared at him. “But… you seem so…”

“Human?”

“Yeah…”

The man sighed. “I do. Hell, I feel more human most days, so all of this is weird. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have weird demonic instincts, but usually they’re ignorable and I’m not unconsciously doing it.”

Nero looked down at his lap and frowned. He didn’t really know how to feel about the revelation of his demon blood, but if his presence was making Dante uncomfortable with making him act more demonic…

“Are you… okay with this?”

Nero looked back up to see the man looking at him, a hesitant look on his face. “Huh?”

Dante sighed. “With the whole thing, you know me being half-devil, and you being a quarter. We didn’t really get into how you felt about it earlier and I guess it’s set in by now.”

Said quarter-devil looked back down, thinking about it. It had sunk in, but…

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It explains a lot, but… I just don’t know…”

Dante sighed, before reaching over and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Nero instinctively tensed at the contact before forcing himself to relax. All of this physical contact was going to take some time to get used to.

“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” the man said softly. “I don’t know all the answers either, I’m still learning new stuff about being half-devil. There’s not many hybrids like us out there and my dad went and got himself killed before I turned five so I’ve basically been flying blind my whole life.”

Nero stared at him. He was a little worried that something would pop up that Dante couldn’t fix, but him admitting that he didn’t know everything… for some reason it was kind of reassuring? It made it seem like there wasn’t that big of a gap between them.

He looked away, rubbing his nose, trying not to get emotional again. He’d already done enough of that today, thank you very much. “So,” he started, “am I going to start doing a bunch of weird stuff like sniffing shit like you’ve been doing?”

Dante barked out a laugh. “I was wondering when you were going to bring that up! I have no idea. Until you came along I only sometimes used my enhanced nose to sniff out demons- though like I said earlier I mainly just sense their auras instead- and make sure my leftover pizza is still okay to eat.”

“Why are you sniffing me all the time then? It’s weird.”

The man looked away, seeming kind of uncomfortable. “Devils seem to rely a lot on their sense of smell. I guess it’s just something like that, to make sure that you’re okay and feeling alright.”

“You mean you can smell what I’m feeling?!?”

Dante flinched at the almost hysteric note that had entered his voice. “No! It’s not like that! More like I can tell if you’re hurt or in pain or not. I sure as hell can’t smell feelings and if I could I’d be trying to figure out how to stop that because I sure as hell don’t want to.”

Nero sighed. That was a relief at least. Or at least it was until something else occurred to him. “Wait, don’t demons feed on fear?” He vaguely remembered hearing something like that in between trying to ignore that stupid priest.

“Yeah, they do like to, that and blood seem to be their main diet. But nope, I’ve never had any desire to feed off someone’s fear so I doubt you’ll have to worry about that.” He seemed to hesitate for a moment before admitting, “I do have a low level of empathy though, nothing really strong- I can only sense really strong emotions from someone. Like if someone’s extremely angry I get that sense from them. I can’t get what someone feels normally though.”

Well, that wasn’t what Nero wanted to hear, but at least it wasn’t something strong. “Am I going to get that?”

Dante shrugged. “No idea. I don’t remember picking up that I could until I was like seventeen, but I could have earlier and just not realized it.”

“So, I’ll get more demonic as I age?”

“I wouldn’t call it that. Yeah, your abilities will increase as you age, but it won’t necessarily make you more of a devil. You’ll still be you, still be mostly human.”

Nero kicked his feet, staring at the dashboard of the car. He really didn’t like the “mostly human” part, but he’ll just have to accept it, won’t he?

He started when he felt Dante turn him so he’d look at him. “Hey, you’ll have me,” he tried to assure him, “that’s more than I had growing up. I’ll help you with everything, don’t worry about it.”

Nero bit his lip, wanting to look away but unable to turn away from those icy eyes that somehow held so much warmth in them. He blinked a couple times, trying to convince himself not to cry in front of the man again.

Thankfully, Dante just rubbed his hair and broke eye contact of his own accord, letting him go and turning the key to start the car. He hesitated for a moment with his hand on the gear, turning to look at him again. “You going to be okay?” he asked softly.

Nero thought about it. After a moment, he nodded. “I will be.”

He wasn’t lying. It was a lot to take in and he did have some worries, but it wasn’t near as much as he’d been expecting.

* * *

 

Nero blinked. Then blinked again. He rubbed at his eyes but even that failed to change what he was seeing and wake him up from the weird dream that had woke him up that he was probably still in.

Nope, Dante really was drawing something on the floor and muttering in some language he didn’t understand.

He’d only been there a couple days and even he knew that this picture was weird.

“What are you doing?” he finally asked.

Instead of immediately answering or even turning around, Dante just raised a finger as if to tell him to wait a minute. Nero would have asked again if it wasn’t so weird and confusing. Instead, he- for once- kept silent and just stared at the man.

After another minute, Dante finally quit muttering and turned around. “Good, you’re up!” he said. “Come here, kid.”

Nero frowned, but warily made his way over to the man. “Seriously, what are you doing?”

“Working on the wards.”

“The what?”

“The wards. Basically, wards are a like a magic field that keeps stuff away from the shop. Never bothered before, just kept up a warning system so I know if something was coming, but figured it’s a good idea now that you’re here, don’t want any demons trying to take a piece of you.”

Nero stared at him. He had so many questions. “…You can do magic?” he finally decided on asking.

Dante just snorted at that. “Nope. Well technically depending on how you categorize my demonic powers, but not in the way you’re thinking. Wards are extremely low-level magic, practically anyone can make them. Granted not everyone does them effectively or near as good as me, but still.”

“Is that what you did in that room by the kitchen?” the part devil asked before he realized that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to mention that because maybe it wasn’t something Dante ever wanted him to get into.

Instead of getting mad though, Dante just looked a little surprised. “Yeah, it is. You tried to get into it?”

Nero just looked down, biting his lip and forcing himself to nod. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be, you were curious. I’d try to get in too. Nah, I’m just surprised I didn’t notice, I set it up to keep people out and let me know if they tried to get in. Guess your aura is similar enough to mine that it only accomplished the first bit.”

Dante stopped talking suddenly, furrowing his brow in thought while looking at the symbols drawn on the floor. “Maybe…”

Nero was about to ask what he was thinking when the half-devil pulled him onto his lap. He yelped, immediately trying to wiggle free. “Relax,” the man said, “I’m not going to hurt you, this’ll just make it easier to get both of us in the wards without screwing it up.”

The six-year-old reluctantly relaxed and sat back against the man’s chest, watching as he kept drawing weird symbols on the floor while muttering in the language from earlier. After a little while, a shudder ran through him as _something_ ran across his body. It wasn’t the same as when he had tried to open that door earlier, it wasn’t trying to keep him away. In fact, it was downright pleasant compared to that.

Finally, Dante threw around the chalk he’d been drawing with and just fell back on the floor with a groan, taking Nero with him. “I hate creating wards…”

“It’s hard?”

“Not really, just annoying.”

Nero thought about getting up, but Dante had a decent grip on him and he didn’t want to make him more uncomfortable after what he just did. Yeah, that was definitely the reason. “So, what were you doing exactly?” he asked, turning his head to eye the rapidly fading symbols on the floor.

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Dante began, forcing himself to sit up, still keeping Nero in his lap, “but basically I’ve been drawing runes around the shop to set as wards. The one I just did in front of the door is the main one that ties everything together, where it’s strongest.”

“So, you have to use runes for that?”

“Nope, there’s other ways to do it. This is just the easiest to do without accidentally locking myself out of them because of my devil blood.”

Nero abruptly looked down at the floor at that. To his surprise, he’d mostly accepted it after a couple clarifying questions, but having it brought up so suddenly…

“You okay?”

He didn’t answer for a few moments. Finally, he asked in a small voice, “How can you say it so easily?”

For a moment, Dante didn’t say anything, just moved them around so that instead of sitting on his lap, Nero was sitting on the floor with him kneeling in front of him. He cupped the boy’s cheek and forced him to look at him.

“I say it so easily because it’s who I am,” he answered softly. “I’ve accepted it. Nothing I do’s going to change it, so may as well just accept it.”

Nero averted his eyes. “Easy for you to say,” he mumbled.

Dante let out a humorless chuckle. “Believe me kid, it wasn’t easy for me to say several years ago. Denying it just makes it worse in the long run. Fighting it’s even worse.”

The half-devil let out another sigh, dropping his gaze for a moment before looking back into the kid’s eyes. “It’s not easy, but if you can accept it early on it’ll make things much easier than what I went through.”

Nero cocked his head. “You didn’t always know?”

He knew he said something wrong when the man screwed his eyes shut and sharply inhaled. “I always did, more or less. It’s… up until almost eight years ago I didn’t accept it. It… it almost was my end and I lost someone because of it.”

“What ha-“

“Don’t.” Dante cut him off. He took a shaky breath, finally letting his arms fall back to his sides. “I’ll tell you one day. Just… just not today. Please.”

Nero stared at him. He’d only known the man for a couple days, but even he knew this wasn’t normal. Dante had looked sad a couple times, yes, but not anywhere near this. Seeing him almost falling apart in front of him… the six-year-old did the only thing he could think of.

Dante stiffened for a moment when Nero suddenly hugged him, but quickly enough wrapped his arms around him, pulling them both into a more comfortable position, leaning his head on the small shoulder.

After a few minutes, Dante finally pulled away, immediately averting his eyes, but not before Nero caught how they looked a little wet. Internally freaking out a little because this was _not okay,_ he frantically searched his mind for some other subject. “So… the ward on that door by the kitchen?”

“Oh right! That!” The devil hunter latched onto the topic immediately. “It’s where I keep my Devil Arms.”

“Your what?”

“Weapons. Demonic ones. You see, when a strong devil is defeated, sometimes their soul turns into a weapon for their defeater to use. Doesn’t happen all that often, the devil has to be pretty powerful, but I’ve collected a few over the years.”

“Cool! Can I have one?”

Dante laughed at that. “Not right now kid, maybe when you’re a little older,” he replied, ruffling the kid’s hair.

Nero swatted his hand away “Quit messing with my hair old man!”

“Nah, it’s nice and fluffy!”

All he received was a glare that sadly didn’t do anything to wipe the smirk off his face. Scowling, Nero changed the subject. “So, what’s all the weapons out here then?”

“Normal swords mainly,” the hunter shrugged. “Just because I don’t use them when fighting demons doesn’t mean that I don’t think they’re cool.”

“Why don’t you use them?”

He shrugged again. “No real need to. I don’t actually even use most of my Devil Arms on a daily basis.”

“Why not?”

“No real need most of the time. Sometimes I take them out when I know I’m going against a demon that’s weak to whatever element a Devil Arm is, but I usually just stick with my normal ones.”

Before Nero could ask, Dante had stood up and made his way over to the desk. After seeing the man gesture for him to come over, he followed. Dante picked up the black and white guns lying on the top. “These are Ebony and Ivory,” he explained. “They’ve saved my ass multiple times when demons have attacked and I don’t have a sword on me because for some reason it’s not socially acceptable to lug around a sword everywhere.”

Nero reverently looked at the black one- Ebony probably- when Dante offered it to him. He wasn’t an expert on guns- the orphanage sucked and discouraged them- but he still knew that whoever had made them had definitely known what they were doing. Turning it over in his hands to get a better look from another angle, he frowned at the words written on the side. “Why does it say ‘For Tony Redgrave’ on it?”

He immediately knew he’d said something else wrong when he looked up and saw the look in Dante’s eyes. After a moment, the man turned away, gently taking the gun from his hands. “No one,” he barely heard the man say in a carefully guarded voice.

Dante cleared his throat, still not meeting his eyes. “Anyway, I take them with me everywhere I go. Never know when a demon will show up to ruin your day, and it’s always good to have something to make long ranged attacks with.”

“You get attacked a lot?”

“Not as much as you’d think, but sometimes they love to show up when you’re having an otherwise great day and shoot your plans to hell.” Dante finally turned back to look at him. “Probably going to have to wait until Lady gets back in town, but if you want I can teach you how to shoot a gun.”

“YES!” Nero exclaimed, beaming. He’d always wanted to learn how to use guns because they just seemed so cool. And because the orphanage didn’t like them. But mostly because they’re cool.

Dante grinned at him. “That’s settled then. I’ll take a look through the closet and see if I can find anything that will work, but if there’s nothing I’ll just bug Lady whenever she decides to show back up.”

“Why can’t you teach me with those ones?” Granted, Nero had no idea if they were beginner friendly, but he didn’t want to wait for whoever this “Lady” was.

“I would, but probably better to teach you how to shoot first before showing you how to create bullets.”

“…Huh? Create bullets?”

“Yeah. I tend to just use my demonic powers to create bullets. Saves me so much money.”

“So basically you just use magic.”

“…I guess that’s accurate?”

Well, it wasn’t the weirdest thing Nero had heard since he’d gotten here, so he just shrugged and accepted it. “Any other weird magic thing you can do?”

Dante thought for a moment. “Well, I beat up a devil horse once and can now stop time for a bit.”

“What.”

“Don’t use it too often though, takes way too much energy out of me and can take all the fun out of a fight.”

Nero really couldn’t tell if the man was joking or not. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out. “…Anything else?”

Instead of replying, Dante just smirked and snapped his fingers. Nero could have sworn his eyes turned red for a split second, but was quickly distracted by the giant claymore that had been lying against the wall flying into the man’s outstretched hand in a blur of red electricity.

“This,” Dante started, driving his sword into a convenient gap in the floorboards and leaning on it, “is Rebellion. She’s been my partner for as long as I can remember.”

Nero crept closer to get a closer look at the sword. It was giant, way taller than Nero himself and reaching up to Dante’s shoulders. The sword itself didn’t look too out of the ordinary outside of the hilt looking like it had a skull on it, but he was getting a sort of… demonic power sense from it? Even after he’d gotten the aura thing explained it was still confusing.

“It’s a Devil Arm?” he settled on asking.

“She, not it, and yep. Got her from my father before he went and got himself killed. One of the few memories I have of him actually. Anyway, apparently she’s been passed down through my family for a long time. Not that that’s really impressive since they were all devils, but still kind of interesting.” Dante gave a small, bittersweet smile. “I remember Vergil being jealous I got her. He was more than fine with Yamato after our dad showed him what she could do and told him he mainly used that katana before giving it to him, though.”

That was a new name. “Who’s Vergil?”

For the third time that day Nero realized he’d said something wrong when he saw the pain in the man’s eyes. “Never mind, you don’t need-“

“It’s fine,” Dante said cutting off. “Just… Vergil was my twin brother. We didn’t have the best relationship after mom died, but… I miss him.”

Nero looked down at the floor, feeling guilty. No matter how much he tried not to, he kept bringing up sore subjects. How long until Dante got tired of that happening and left him?

“Nero.”

Said boy looked up to see that Dante was kneeling in front of him again. He hadn’t even heard him move.

Dante sighed. “Don’t feel bad. You had no way of knowing that anything’s a sore subject for me and I’m not about to get mad at you for asking and I swear I’ll tell you my entire story one day, I just don’t want to get into everything when you’ve only just got here.”

“Why? Have you done something bad?” _Should I be worried?_

“My life's just been complicated, more like. It’s not that I’ve done anything bad- I actually haven’t unless you count occasional property damage because sometimes demons dodge and you get bullet holes and sword slices in stuff- it’s just…”

Dante trailed off and sighed again, looking away from him. In a whisper that he could barely hear even with his enhanced hearing, he said, “I don’t want to scare you off…”

Nero couldn’t believe what he had heard. _Dante_ was scared of him scaring him off? Why would he be so afraid of that? That was what he should be scared of, not him. “Why are you scared of that? That’s what I’m supposed to be! You’re not supposed to be scared of that!’

Dante’s eyes shot up to stare at his, shock written all over his face. “Nero. You’re scared I’ll leave you?”

The six-year-old looked down, tears forming in his eyes. This was it. It was out. His father, the man he most wanted to stay, knew now. He’d be disgusted at him, think he was weak for being scared of something like that. Any moment now he’d hear the words he always knew was coming.

To his shock, instead of hateful words, he was crushed against his father’s chest. He was about to pull away and question the man but froze when he felt the man shake against him.

“I’m sorry,” he heard Dante mumble into his hair. “It’ll never make things right, I know. I didn’t keep a close enough eye out. I should have found you when you were born. Maybe then you’d know I’d never leave you. I’m so sorry,” he said desperately, his voice breaking a little as he said the last word.

Nero just stood there in shock. He could feel some sort of liquid running through his hair, but it couldn’t be tears, could it? He couldn’t pull enough away to check though; the man had a death grip on him.

“I don’t know how to convince you I won’t leave,” he heard the man continue after taking a deep, shaky breath, “but I won’t. I swear that I won’t. The only way you’ll be rid of me is if you left and I don’t know what I’ll do if you decide to.”

“Why would I leave?” Nero finally asked, quietly.

“I don’t know. Everyone does though. It could only be a matter of time until you do too.”

Nero finally forced his way from the man just enough to see his face. Dante immediately turned his head, but the boy still caught sight of the tear tracks on his cheeks. Nero looked back down, closing his eyes upon feeling tears prick at his eyes.

“I don’t want to leave,” he whispered, trying desperately not to let the tears escape. “You don’t treat me like some kind of freak. You act like I’m normal even though I’m not.”

And he lost the battle of trying to keep his tears in his eyes. A hand came up to gently brush them away.

“I don’t think normal exists,” his dad said softly. “But you are normal for you. You may be part-devil, but you’re still you. It’s just part of what makes you Nero.”

Nero sniffed. He wanted to believe him, but it was just so hard.

He felt his dad rub his eyes. “You know what? Devils never cry. The fact that you can shows you’re human. You just have some extra stuff.”

Nero finally opened his eyes to stare into his dad’s, finding no lie in his eyes. He sniffed again, leaning towards and letting the warmth envelop him.

He was still terrified that Dante would leave, that feeling wasn’t going away anytime soon unfortunately. But this was a start at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this chapter was supposed to be fluff originally. They just hijacked the chapter and said nope, they both want another crying session.
> 
> I think this will work better in the long run though. I mean, Nero saw that his father has feelings too. And Dante finally got to break down a bit, the guy needed to stop holding everything in like he always does in whatever material he’s in at the moment.
> 
> I’m not all that happy with the first half, but oh well.  
> On Rebellion:  
> First off, I will fight if you try to convince me she wasn’t originally a female devil.  
> Second, I just pulled the story about her being passed down through family out of nowhere, I know. Yamato got a kind of special backstory in 4 and so I felt Rebellion deserves something special. I think it would have been an early thing that made Vergil kind of resentful to Dante, him getting the ancestral weapon, but Yamato was what Sparda used so it did dissipate until they met again years later and he saw that Dante was rejecting their heritage yet still carrying that sword. He didn’t really want the sword, but seeing him with it and yet denying his devil side definitely made him a little mad.  
> Besides, there’s the hilarity of Mundus expecting loyalty from someone that has a sword that’s literally called “Rebellion” and not expecting anything. That’s where the headcanon started. Anything that makes Mundus look like a complete idiot is a good idea to me to be honest.
> 
> (By the way, no, Eva was not happy that Sparda gave two four-year-olds giant swords. Sparda slept outside for a week because their couch was too nice. The twins got to keep the swords though, she couldn’t bring herself to take them away when she saw how happy they were.)


	4. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero, meet Lady. Lady, meet utter confusion. Dante, meet obliviousness- oh wait that’s normal.

Dante sat at his desk in his customary “napping” position, feet up on said desk and gun magazine (he’d resigned himself to throwing away his _special_ magazines after seeing how curious Nero could be) covering his face.

The last week had been interesting, though there had thankfully been no further breakdowns for either of them. He was a little ashamed that he’d let himself fall apart like that in front of his son, but it had at least brought them a little closer.

There was one thing for sure, he’d cooked more the past week than he had for years. He wasn’t anywhere near the best cook ever, but he had enjoyed helping his mom before everything had gone to hell, so he at least knew how not to burn down the house. It was weird, cooking so much, but his kid seemed happier not having takeout every night.

Nero loved Chinese food though. He’d decided to get it on a whim, he’d need to go back to the store for anything else and the kid had just glared at him for suggesting pizza again. The moment Nero had tasted the food he’d decided to try, he got this adorable look of pure joy and scarfed it down almost too fast to even taste the food. He then proceeded to ask for it every night since. It’s not like Dante had a problem with Chinese food, but having it too much would likely make him sick of it.

…Was that why everyone tried to make him eat pizza less? Nah, can’t be, pizza was the food of the gods. They just refused to see that.

Storytime was fun too. Of course, Nero never for one before bed, but one night…

~~~

“Hey, old man- wait you’re _reading?”_

Dante looked up from his book to see Nero staring at him incredulously from the doorway to his room. “Yeah?”

“You can read?”

“Wow. That hurts. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover.”

Nero glared at him. “Shut up. It’s just… weird. You don’t look like a reader.”

The devil hunter just shrugged. He wasn’t wrong. “Books are a cheep form of entertainment. I don’t read in the main office, but sometimes I get tired of napping.”

“Uh huh. And I hate Chinese. By the way-“

“Nope, already bought pasta stuff for tomorrow.”

Nero pouted. Dante just grinned before patting the empty space on the bed next to him. The kid just eyed him, causing him to roll his eyes and insistently repeat the motion. Finally, he came over and sat on the very edge of the bed, causing the man to roll his eyes yet again before grabbing his son and forcing him to cuddle up to him.

“Hey!” Nero exclaimed, struggling against the hold.

“You could’ve been reasonable and I’d let you relax wherever, but nope, you get cuddles now.”

The part devil finally gave up, putting on a big show of being disgruntled even though he fully knew that Dante knew that he loves cuddles. Apparently he had a reputation to maintain with some imaginary person.

“What’d you come in here for anyway?” Dante asked once they were both comfortable.

Nero was silent for a moment. “Can’t remember,” he muttered, rubbing his nose.

“Hopefully nothing important.”

“Nah.”

They sat there in silence, just enjoying each other’s presence. After a few minutes, Dante reached for his book, stopping when a thought occurred to him. If this worked, he’d get all the cuddles he could want!

“Hey, you want me to read to you?”

Nero just stared at him. “What?”

“Bedtime story. Kids like that.”

“I’m not a kid!”

“Again, yes, you are, we go through this way too often.”

“Shut up!”

Dante just snickered. That “argument” never failed to amuse him. “Seriously, a friend gave me this one series awhile ago, said they’d appeal to how childish I can be. Thought about not reading them out of spite, but I’ve heard good things about the books and the next one comes out soon so may as well.”

His kid just frowned, seemingly thinking it over. “…What series is it?” he finally asked.

“Harry Potter.”

“I’ve heard of that! One of the older girls was mad they couldn’t get it. Lots of arguments. Was annoying.”

“Yeah, seems to have a pretty rabid fanbase. Anyway, give me a minute to drag them out, may as well see what all the fuss is about.”

~~~

Dante grinned at the memory. Storytime was one of the most enjoyable parts of the day now. They were a little over a quarter of the way through the first book and they were both enjoying the books more than they had thought. Being able to just about sense how content his son was as he leaned against him as he read aloud definitely helped with that.

Reading together wasn’t the only thing the two of them did. More than once Dante had taken Nero out, to the store or the park or just to wander through the city. Somehow, they’d only been attacked by demons once. Apparently his “don’t screw with me or you’ll be on a painful one-way trip back to Hell” aura (as he decided to call it) did a pretty decent job of keeping demons away when he was out with his kid. The ones that had attacked them seemed to have just been particularly dumb. He was still annoyed they’d attacked at all, but his kid had been suitably impressed at his shooting skills and had increased his pleading for lessons even more, so he'd quickly let it go. Hopefully Lady got back soon so he could ask-

“DANTE!” he heard a woman shout as the door was flung open.

Said man sighed behind the magazine on his face. _Think of the money loving woman and she shall appear I guess. Hopefully she didn’t wake the kid up from his nap._

He debated about just pretending to be asleep, but given the tone of voice she said his name in that wouldn’t stop her, so he sighed and removed the magazine. “Lady. What do you want?”

Said woman just glared at him. “So this is what you’ve been doing the past week, just sitting on your lazy ass.”

Dante raised an eyebrow, eyeing her and noticing how exhausted she looked and getting the faint scent of coffee from her. “The hell are you talking about?”

“I finally get back home after being on the road for almost a month and what do I find?  Almost a dozen voicemails about jobs that should have been taken care of this past week. Care to explain?”

 _Shit._ He’d left the phone unplugged the past week, wanting to help Nero get settled in without worrying about any jobs. He’d figured that if something major happened he’d sense it or someone would just come in. He definitely didn’t regret it even when faced with an annoyed Lady, making sure his kid was comfortable was way more important than helping someone with a low-level demon.

“Look,” he started, hoping that he hadn’t just heard a door upstairs open. “stuff came up and I took the week off. Nothing major’s happened, I’ve been keeping enough of an eye out for that, and no one’s come in, so they can’t be that important.”

Unfortunately, Lady didn’t seem at all pacified by that explanation, and to make things worse he was positive that he was hearing Nero come down the stairs.

“I’ve had the worse time tracking down a bunch of demons and their nests, so I expected to be able to take a couple days to rest, not have to deal with a whole bunch of jobs because you’re too lazy to get off your-“

“What the hell is going on here?”

Yep. Nero had woken up from his nap. And had good timing. Any longer and something bad might have happened given Lady’s lack of sleep.

Watching the shock appear on Lady’s face as she whirled around to see the kid was kind of hilarious, but Dante somehow managed to keep it in. Given her foul mood, there was a chance that she’d try shooting him, and he didn’t want Nero to see that.

Lady stared at Nero for several long seconds. She turned back to Dante, staring at him for a moment, before turning back to the kid. This repeated several times.

Finally, she shook her head and threw up her hands before stalking back out the door, muttering something about needing coffee because she couldn’t deal with this shit on no sleep.

The moment that the door had slammed shut behind her, Dante collapsed on his desk, nearly crying from laughter. Nero just stared at the door, head cocked in confusion. “Who the hell was that?” he demanded.

It took a moment for the devil hunter to calm down and stop his hysteric laughter. Once he was able to he answered, “That was a sleep-deprived Lady, kid. A dangerous enemy, for sure.”

The part devil just stared at him before apparently giving up and collapsing on the couch, messing with the old TV sitting on the coffee table. “Is she always like that?”

“She’s annoying and sometimes a bitch, yeah, but usually she’s not that bad or I wouldn’t still hang out with her. Nah, that would be how she acts when she’s apparently had very little sleep and dealt with really annoying demons. Like I said, a dangerous enemy, take care to avoid her at all costs unless you want to get shot.”

“She shoots you?!?”

Shit. He hadn’t meant to let that slip. “Not really,” he hurried to assure his kid.

“What does that mean?”

And Nero was getting more hysterical the longer this went on. “She doesn’t on a daily basis, don’t worry.” Thank whatever for that. He didn’t enjoy dealing with healing from bullet wounds and feeling the bullets either force themselves out of his body or worse, just dissolve. It was a really annoying feeling he'd probably never get used to for sure. “It really only happens when she’s had a few too many drinks and I say something stupid.” Or if she was sleep deprived, like today, but Nero didn’t need to know that.

“That doesn’t make it okay!”

Dante sighed, getting up and walking over to the couch, sitting down and putting his arm around his son. “You’ve seen how fast I heal, right? Bullets are nothing at this point, I barely even flinch from them anymore. Hell, I’d prefer it over getting stabbed with my own sword and that happens way too often.”

…Wow he was bad at comforting his son. Nero was just staring at him, and he was picking up on how terrified he was. Somehow, he doubted that the terror was towards him specifically.

“Nero,” the half-devil said softly, “don’t worry about it. I’m hard to kill, believe me.”

“But you get hurt,” Nero said desperately.

Dante was happy that his son cared about him to the point of worry, but this wasn’t going to make it any easier for him to get back in the field. He’d already lost a week because he didn’t want his son to be hurt in any way. All of the actually decent paying jobs he’d gotten before he found his son had helped, but the money would run out soon, and he couldn’t change careers at this point. He had too many enemies and no experience with anything else.

“It’s an occupational hazard,” he admitted, “but I’m better equipped to hunt demons than most people.”

“’Cause your half one yourself?”

“Definitely helps, yeah, not just because of the healing factor. Besides, I like doing it. Sounds bad, but I love the thrill of a good fight. Sure, I get hurt sometimes, but I heal.”

Nero was calming down a bit now, Dante had stopped picking up on his terror, but just from his body posture he could tell that he was still scared that something would happen to him. Seriously, seeing evidence that he cared what happened to him was reassuring that bonding with him was working, but he had no idea how to stop him from worrying.

His first idea instinctively made him scowl, and he had to work to get it off his face before Nero could question it. It wasn’t meshing well with his instincts to protect his offspring, but unfortunately, nothing else he thought of would do better at reassuring his son than that, so it almost seemed like the choice was out of his hands.

Dante let out a breath. All but forcing the words out of his mouth and hoping that they didn’t sound harsh, he asked, “Next time I go on a job that’s not anything major… do you want to tag along? To show you I can take care of myself?”

He saw Nero hesitate, but slowly nod.

Great. It was settled. He’d be taking his son out to hunt demons. At any point during the mission they’d realize that he had a kid and would definitely target him. He’d have to recheck the wards, make sure that they were up to-

Dante blinked. _What the hell? Why am I so paranoid all of a sudden? I’ve taken him out before and I’ve never thought like this before, not even that one time we were attacked…_

Maybe it was because it would involve specifically going out and fighting demons for a job? From what little he knew about how demons worked when they weren’t killing people, they didn’t like other demons around their offspring. Great. Another weird demonic instinct to add to the list, though at least this one was fully understandable because, well, _demons._

Regardless though, he was definitely forcing Lady to come along to help keep an eye on the situation. He didn’t care how tired she was, protecting Nero was more important than her beauty sleep, and if she didn't agree he'd tell her where to stuff it.

* * *

 

Lady had half hoped that she’d been hallucinating the kid, but nope, there he was sitting on the couch, watching some sort of show with Dante.

It wasn’t that she was shocked that Dante found himself with an accident kid. He was careful, she knew that from the couple times they’d end up in bed together but didn’t talk about by mutual agreement, but stuff happened.

Still, the idea of him having a kid living with him was just weird to think about.

Part of it might be because devil hunters didn’t really do families. There were exceptions, like the groups that helped train new hunters if you looked them up, but on the whole even the ones that settled down with a single partner didn’t usually bring kids into the world, or if they did they left them in the hands of people as far from the life as possible. Given Dante’s life, she’d half expected him to do the same.

Then again, maybe she was being unfair to him. He’d never shared all the details of his past with her- not that she was upset about that, she didn’t want to talk about some of the things she’d been through either- but she knew that he hadn’t had the best of times after his mother had died. As much as he acted like he wasn’t, Dante was a big softie at heart. If he found out he had a kid that could end up somewhere even slightly bad, he would take them and try to give them as good a life as he could.

Besides, there was the whole “part-devil grandkid of Sparda” thing to think of. The kid’s chances of having a completely normal life probably went down the drain before he was even born. Even if he was able to avoid going into the devil hunting life he’d probably still need to learn how to protect himself.

Still though, the idea seeing Dante with a kid was just weird, so who could blame her for staring at the two on the couch once she’d gotten back from her nice, long nap?

“And here I was hoping I was seeing things,” Lady finally managed to dryly say after several long moments, causing Dante to snort and the kid to glare at her.

Actually, the kid had been glaring at her since the moment she walked in for some reason. Not that it was actually intimidating her; the kid was much too cute for that.

“I’ve got to hand it to you,” she continued when neither of them said anything, “you somehow made one cute kid, Dante.”

The kid’s face turned bright red. “I’m not cute!” he protested, causing both adults to laugh at him.

“Of course I did, have you seen me?” Dante grinned, causing his kid to turn his glare towards him. Before the kid could say anything though, he continued, “Anyway, Lady, this is Nero; Nero, Lady.”

“Nice to meet you Nero,” Lady said, walking over and sticking her hand out.

Nero just glared at her. “I don’t shake hands with people that shoot people when drunk.”

Lady blinked at that. That hadn’t been what she expected. Then again, she wasn’t sure what she had expected to happen.

Dante just groaned. “Kid, we’ve been through this, Drunken Lady isn’t normal Lady, and getting shot is not the worse thing to happen to me.”

“Still!”

“Why the hell would you tell him that?”

“It just came out, okay?”

Lady just rolled her eyes. Typical. “Look,” she said, turning to face the kid, “I’m not going to shoot him. It doesn’t do anything and it’s just a waste of bullets.”

Nero was still glaring at her. She glanced at Dante, finding him leaning back against the couch and smirking. She wasn’t sure why she bothered.

She let out a sigh. “Anything I can do to convince you that I won’t shoot him for being an idiot?”

Nero thought about it. After a moment, he replied, “Buy me Chinese food for dinner.”

That had definitely not been what she had expected.

Apparently Dante wasn’t surprised though, because he just rolled his eyes and asked, “What is with you and Chinese food?”

“What’s with you and pizza?”

“Pizza is delicious!”

“So’s Chinese!”

Lady couldn’t help but laugh at the two of them. If she’d had any doubt that the kid was Dante’s….

Ignoring the dirty look Dante shot her, she replied, “I can do that, I just need your dad to come with me to get it.”

Okay, the glare she was getting from the devil hunter was almost a little concerning. “And why do I need to go with you? Last I checked you have two working arms and legs.”

So he was extremely protective of the kid like she’d assumed when she first saw him. At least she had confirmation that his lack of work wasn’t because he was too lazy to get up for once. “Please. Consider it payment for the food. You can leave the kid alone for the, what, thirty minutes it’ll take to get it?”

…Okay, the continuing glaring was actually starting to concern her. Maybe she should let it be for once…

Thankfully, Nero was nowhere near as concerned and demanded, “Go. I want Chinese. Get it.”

“But-“

“Do it old man!”

It was honestly kind of adorable watching Nero try and push his dad off the couch and barely get anywhere.

Eventually, Dante got tired of it and all but growled out, “Fine! I’ll be back in less than forty minutes,” before getting off the couch and grabbing his coat and guns, putting them on as he went out the door.

Lady shared a smirk with the kid before quickly following. She liked the kid already.

She almost had to jog to keep up with the half devil. Getting annoyed, she finally asked, “Are you that desperate to pay that you want to leave me behind?”

Dante just shot her a look, but did slow down a little. “You dragged me out to ask me about the kid. Just ask.”

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she muttered. Louder, she asked “How old is he?”

“Six. Birthday’s in September.”

“So you had a kid before you could even legally smoke.”

“Why the hell would I do that to my poor nose?”

“Usually people say lungs.”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure I’ve regrown organs before, so they could take it. My nose can’t.”

Lady just rolled her eyes at him. He had a point, but he was still an idiot.

They stayed silent for a couple minutes. Finally, she broke it and asked, “How much does he know?”

“He knows he’s part devil and I hunt demons for a living. Haven’t told him who my dad was, but that’s mainly because he had bad run ins with a guy that worshiped him and I think it’s a good idea to let him get some of that out first.”

That was good at least. She’d been half afraid that he’d keep all that a secret. She did think that maybe he should tell him about the whole Sparda thing now, but she didn’t know the details of those encounters with that guy so that was probably okay to leave for now.

“Can he Devil Trigger?”

All Lady had wanted to know was whether she should be prepared to see the kid turn into a devil at some point. She sure as hell wasn’t expecting Dante to stop dead and an honest to god _growl_ to escape his throat.

“No. He can’t. And he’s not finding out if he can anytime soon.”

She blinked, shocked. Deciding not to question why he was so opposed to Nero finding out if he could or not, she instead asked, “So, how much did he freak when he saw yours?”

Dante just gave her a confused look. “Why would I Trigger in front of him when there’s nothing going on? Waste of energy.”

“…So he knows and doesn’t freak if you ever do it when fighting demons in front of him?”

“Why would he freak out?”

Wow he was an idiot. Apparently whatever god existed didn’t bless him with a working brain. “Think about it with the few brain cells you haven’t killed. How would you react if you saw your dad turn into a devil in front of you?”

“I always just wondered why he wasn’t cuddling with mom. Apparently he was nice and warm in devil form.”

Lady just facepalmed at that. “Idiot. You’re hopeless.”

“…What did I do?”

“Imagine for one single second you hadn’t known your dad was a devil from birth and he suddenly came into your life. How would you react if you suddenly saw him in his devil form?”

Apparently the moron finally got it if the way his face had paled was any indication.

“…What the hell do you expect me to do?” Dante asked after a minute, running a hand through his hair. “Go up to him and just blurt out that I have a devil form? That’d go over real well.”

Lady shrugged. “How should I know? Just don’t do it when you two are fighting a bunch of demons because you forgot he didn’t know and you should be fine.”

The half-devil winced at the memory. She’d shot him several times with Kalina Ann out of shock. He did heal faster in that form (a scary thought since his regular healing wasn’t anything to scoff at), but a bunch of missiles was apparently still painful. Well, it had been his own fault, so she wasn’t going to apologize for it.

“Seriously though, you need to do it soon. It’ll be better for the both of you if you do, and then I won’t have to charge you for the fallout.”

Dante didn’t reply, just turned around and started walking towards the restaurant again. Lady rolled her eyes, but followed.

The rest of the night went well after that. Bringing back Chinese in exactly 33 minutes and 41 seconds- Nero was apparently a cheeky brat and timed them, she definitely liked the kid- and showing off Kalina Ann and promising to find a gun he could use definitely got her on the kid’s good side.

Watching the two of them interact was great entertainment. Dante was much the same, still a cocky bastard, but around Nero he was much softer for lack of a better adjective. Nero was just adorable, he kept trying to act way older than he was but failed. Seriously, how did Dante manage to have a kid like that? He had been suitably awed by all the tales they told him about fighting demons. She did have to know Dante down a few pegs when he started boasting, but that was normal.

Eventually, Lady turned her head and finally caught sight of the clock. “Well, it’s been fun taking Dante’s ridiculous ego down a bit-“

“Hey!”

“-but I have money to make. Been nice meeting you Nero!”

She grabbed Kalina Ann from where she’d left it against the wall and headed out the door. She paused in the threshold, a smirk crossing her face. “Dante, don’t forget to tell him about your Devil Trigger!”

She rushed out the door before either of them could say anything, smirk still on her face. She’d put Dante on the spot and would be helping the kid. A good way to start the night.

* * *

 

Dante was going to kill Lady.

He wouldn’t admit it, but she did have a point that maybe he should tell Nero about his Devil Trigger. Which he had actually completely forgotten about. It was just a normal ability of his at this point, just something he could do. He was a little more careful about who he used it in front of after the incident where Lady found out, but she was right, he probably would have forgotten that Nero didn’t know and have a second incident happen.

He was still going to kill her though. He’d rather it be on his own terms.

Unfortunately for him, Nero was already looking at him confused. “What’s a Devil Trigger? Is it another weird demon thing?”

Dante sighed. This conversation was going to suck. Well, may as well go the blunt way.

“…You know how some stronger devils can make themselves look human?”

Nero’s eyes widened. “You mean you actually look like a demon?!?”

“No!” the half-devil quickly. Why did he have to take that the complete wrong way? “If I did, I sure as hell wouldn’t be sitting around in human form all the time at home, too much energy.”

“Then what the hell are you talking about?”

“Ugh. It’s the same principle I guess, just reversed.”

“…So you can look like a demon if you want?”

“Devil,” Dante corrected, “but yeah. Takes a lot of energy though, I usually only do it if I’m fighting against a really strong foe or just a bunch of demons. Or if I get too many tears in my clothes, it fixes those- don’t ask me how, I have no idea- and red leather coats are expensive.”

Nero just sat there for a bit. “Oh. I guess that makes sense.”

The half devil eyed him. He was taking this a lot better than he assumed he would.

“Can I see you in it?”

Dante frowned. “You sure?”

“Yep!”

Dante sighed, getting off the couch, motioning for his son to stay there. He grabbed Rebellion from where she was leaning on the couch, placing it on his back. He could Trigger without a Devil Arm now, but the extra energy from a Devil Arm definitely helped with his exhaustion afterwards.

He took a deep breath, glancing at his son to make sure that he really wanted to see, before closing his eyes and Triggering in a flash of red.

He kept his eyes closed for a moment longer, but opened them when he didn’t hear Nero say anything, instead staring at him in… was that awe?

His son got up and made his way over to him, staring at him closer. He circled around him, taking in everything before poking him in the stomach.

Dante raised an eyebrow (or the nearest equivalent, he didn’t practice making facial expressions while in devil form in the mirror so he didn’t know what it looked like). “So?” he asked

Nero blinked at the deeper voice he had, but still continued staring at him. After several long moments where he was getting a little worried, he finally grinned and said, “This is so cool!”

Dante couldn’t hold back his laughter. Thankfully, his son didn’t seem too concerned at how… well, demonic his laughter sounded in this form.

Unfortunately, his laughter was cut short when Nero asked, “So how do I learn how to do it?”

“You’re not.”

Nero frowned. “Why not? Because I don’t have as much demon blood as you?”

Dante sighed, de-triggering in another flash of red. He ignored the fact that he felt a little drained, he'd get his energy back quick enough. “I have no idea. I’d assume that you can, but we’re not finding out.”

“Why?”

He sighed again. “Look. I didn’t know I could Devil Trigger until I was eighteen. I first Triggered when I got stabbed. Usually that wouldn’t be a problem, I’d just get up, but it’d been a long battle and after the first stab I was run through with Rebellion again and she got wedged to the floor so I couldn’t just grab her and yank her out of me. I have no idea if there’s a way to find out without massive amounts of pain and I really don’t want you in that position.”

Nero stared at him with wide eyes, looking a little freaked out. Dante was really glad he didn’t mention that he wasn’t sure if he would still be alive if he hadn’t unlocked his Trigger.

“I’ll look around to see if I can find anything that would tell us how to unlock it without massive amounts of pain, but even if I do we’re waiting until you’re older. I’m not doing that to you when you’re only six.”

Nero looked down at the floor. “Fine. But you better be looking old man!”

Dante just shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. “And here I thought you’d be freaked out.”

“It is freaky, but it’s also just really cool!”

Dante laughed. Apparently Nero wasn’t as different from other boys his age as he’d originally thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter did not go the direction I thought it would. Like at all. I don’t really like it, but I can’t think of a better way to do it so it stuck.
> 
> Dante reading: seems like everyone thinks that Vergil is the reader between the two of them. You’re not wrong, but I feel like he’d mainly read nonfiction and think that fiction is a waste of time. Dante probably doesn’t read near as much, but I can see him getting tired of just sitting around by the phone and getting a few cheep books once in a while. As to why they’re reading Harry Potter, it’s because I read those books too much and if I ever do anything to follow up on this it’s easy.
> 
> Also, you’re probably surprised Lady didn’t shoot him in this chapter, or that she doesn’t really. Outside of once in the anime (which was part of their plan to take down that poker demon and doesn’t count) I can’t remember her ever shooting him after they become friends or partners or whatever. I could just be remembering something wrong, but at the same time I don’t feel like she would near as much as fanfic makes her out to, if only because she needs that ammo and the momentary satisfaction before he gets back up isn’t worth it.  
> (Drunk Lady doesn’t care though. Dante tries to avoid drunk her at all costs.)
> 
> Also speaking of Lady, it’s hard to think of a good adjective besides her name. I can’t do devil hunter if Dante’s around because they’re both that, and nothing else I think of fits.
> 
> I originally had Dante telling Nero about his Devil Trigger later on because he made a slip of the tongue, but nope, Lady decided to ask about it and then proceed to want to annoy Dante. I did always plan for it to be a complete non-issue for Nero though, I mean he is at the age where boys think anything weird is cool. If Dante really did look like a devil all the time it might be a different story but right now not really. Also, part of the reason I had it be from Dante’s perspective is because I couldn’t decide what Trigger form to do. I personally picture him in 4’s form with added wings, but you guys can imagine it in whichever one you want.
> 
> Next chapter: Fluff. Seriously, so much fluff and father son bonding.


	5. Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some demons get their butts kicked and father and son have a fun time at a festival.

Nero was not expecting to peer into the front room to find his dad talking to a guy in a suit.

Actually, he wasn’t expecting a guy in a suit to be in this part of town at all. While they weren’t in the wort part of town, it still wasn’t a good idea to act like you had money here. (He didn’t have to worry about that though. Apparently, it was widely known that his dad wasn’t rolling in cash to say the least and that he’d easily take down anyone that so much as touched something of his he cared about, and apparently people had decided they didn’t want to find out what would happen if they messed with his kid. Said kid certainly wasn’t complaining.)

Nero was wondering if the guy was part of the mafia when he heard his dad say, “I’ll check the area out later today, but it shouldn’t be anything big, probably just a couple weak demons. By the way, if you keep showing up here in a suit you’re asking to get mugged.”

“But I’m supposed to look professional!”

“You want to lose your wallet?”

“The boss will agree!”

“With me, yeah. By the way, she okay? Usually she comes and asks me about a job herself.”

“Paperwork.”

“Ah. Tell her I’m on the job and will pop by to grab my pay later.”

“And that you don’t understand professionalism.”

“Hah! I like you! Now scram, I want brunch and I don’t give freebies.”

Nero only went down the stairs once the door had shut. Before he could ask what that was about, Dante was already facing him and said, “Look who finally got up!”

“More surprised you’re up. Don’t old men like you need all the beauty sleep they can get to avoid going gray?” he shot back at him.

All his dad did was smirk at him. “Please. I’m always a sexy beast no matter how much I sleep. Now, little runts like you seem to have no place to put energy and have to recharge every couple hours.”

“I’m not short!”

“Then what, you’re fun sized?”

Nero didn’t reply, just launched himself at Dante with a growl, knocking him off the chair and to the ground.

They play wrestled on the ground for a few minutes. He was completely outmatched and knew it even if he refused to admit it. That didn’t stop him from trying his hardest though.

Eventually, Nero “won” by managing to sit on Dante’s back in a way that made it difficult to get up. He really didn’t care that the man was probably just humoring him and could get him off at any time. He won and that’s all that mattered. “I want pancakes,” he demanded.

Dante just shrugged as best he could. “Sure. Was planning to make them anyway. Now get off.”

The part devil obliged, following him into the kitchen. “Who was that anyway? Mafia guy?”

The devil hunter snorted as he grabbed the pancake mix. “Nope. Probably at least, doubt Amelia would hire someone with those connections. Nope, just an idiot that wants to get mugged.”

“Then who?”

“Works for the city gov. Apparently the place they’re putting on a celebration for the fourth might have some demons hanging around and they want me to check it out.”

Nero blinked. “You work for the government?” he asked incredulously.

Dante just started laughing, almost breaking the bowl he was using after setting it down a little too hard. “Hell no, kid,” he finally got out once he managed to control himself. Picking the bowl back up to better mix the batter, he continued, “What I do has nothing to do with them. I just get hired to take care of demons occasionally. They give surprisingly good paychecks.”

“Oh. Good.” Nero went and sat down at the table, just watching his dad make their brunch. After a couple minutes, he asked, “So can I come with you this time?” When the devil hunter started frowning, he added, “You promised! I didn’t get to go last time because the stupid building was coming down!”

A couple days ago, Dante had gotten a call for a job to destroy a nest in an old warehouse. The building was going to be demolished before the demons moved in, so the group that had hired him had decided to kill two birds with one stone and just pay him to take the building down in the process. His dad had been ecstatic and jumped at the chance, even admitting that he’d have done it without the extra pay. Or any pay at all; according to Lady he cared more about getting rid of demons than getting paid for it. In fact, she half thought that he wouldn’t even insist on payment if he had some other way to pay the bills.

Anyway, Nero hadn’t gotten to come along. Apparently, it was “too dangerous.” He’d tried arguing that that’s what made it fun, but he’d still gotten left behind. He had been appeased with Chinese though, so it hadn’t been a total loss.

Dante just kept frowning. “I know, but Lady’s on that mission a couple towns away and I was going to make her come with-“

“So you need someone else to keep demons away from me?”

One thing Nero had noticed these past couple weeks was that if you insulted his abilities or implied that he couldn’t do something, it was pretty easy to make Dante do something. The best part was that the man was fully aware of what he was doing if the look he was shot was any indication, but it was still working.

“Fine,” Dante ground out, shoving a plate with a few pancakes stacked on it in front of his son. “But you have to listen to everything I saw. If I tell you to stay back, you stay back, whatever. Got that?”

Nero nodded happily, pouring a bunch of syrup on his plate and digging in.

True to his word, Dante began to get ready as soon as they finished eating. He forced Nero to change into something more comfortable (“No, pajamas don’t count, why are you such a cheeky brat”) as he grabbed everything they’d need, double checking that the gun he’d been teaching his son with was loaded and in easy reach even though Nero could and in fact had checked it himself.

Once that was done, Dante handed him a couple green stars. “The hell are these?”

“Vital stars. You get hurt bad, you break it and eat it and it helps you heal faster. Tastes nasty, but so do most medicines from what I’ve heard, so what can you do?”

The part devil eyed it, but reluctantly pocketed it before following his dad out the door.

They walked in silence for a while. Nero couldn’t keep a small smile off his face. He should probably be terrified since demons loved going after anything with human blood, but he wasn’t. He could sense his dad next to him and even though he wasn’t doing the full aura thing after figuring how to dampen it, it was still there enough that it made him feel safe.

Besides, he would get to watch a bunch of demons get beat up. What wasn’t cool about that?

Nero was still a little shocked at how fast he’d gotten used to being here though. He was still a little scared he’d wake up one day and find it had been a dream, but he was getting more and more comfortable the longer he stayed here. It had been barely two weeks but felt like years.

Maybe it was because his dad had been so open about everything. About the only thing he hadn’t told him about was whatever had happened to his family, and according to Lady that had nothing to do with him.

_“He hates talking about it,” she’d told him when he’d asked about it one day when Dante was out. “He hasn’t told me much of anything and I’ve known him for years. It has nothing to do with you and just is stuff he doesn’t want to remember.”_

_“Was it that bad?” he’d asked her._

_She just shrugged. “From what I know, he didn’t have a great childhood after his dad went and got killed. His mom tried, but they were on the run even before the demons caught up to them when he was eight. And then he thought his brother was dead for years and even when he found he wasn’t things went down the drain. Honestly? You’re probably the only family he was happy to find out was alive.”_

That had just made him even more curious, but it had at least warned him off from asking his dad about it again. He wanted to know, but he could wait a little while longer.

Nero was drawn from his thoughts when he saw Dante tense, aura flaring for a split second before he could force it back down. That second was all that was needed though, as the part devil picked up on some hostile thing coming towards them. “What’s-“

“You sense it?”

Nero nodded. “What is it?”

“Seems to be some Hell Prides,” Dante replied, drawing Ebony and Ivory. “Weak and pathetically easy to take care of, but they’re still demons so people still freak out.” He paused, looking over to him. “They usually come in packs, probably because even they realize how easy it is to beat one of them along. Can you tell how many of them there are? They’re slow so we have time.”

Nero frowned. “How am I supposed to do that?”

His dad frowned, turning back to stare at the direction the demons were coming from. “Concentrate I guess.”

“Wow that’s helpful.”

He just turned around to shoot him a look. “I mean concentrate on what you can sense from them. Might be a little difficult with how many there are, but you should at least get an idea.”

Nero kept frowning, but crept slightly closer to his dad and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on the feeling he was getting.

At first, all he felt was the giant wall of demonic energy he had originally sensed. As he concentrated on it though, it almost seemed to… split? No, that wasn’t right, more like he could tell them apart now. It was hard though. There was a lot of them and it was hard to get a good count. The auras were also a lot weaker than his dad’s, which really didn’t help any. Though, were they just that weak or was his dad just that strong? He wanted to believe that he was that strong, but he had no idea.

“Uh… Eight of them?” Nero guessed.

Dante turned around and grinned. “Close. Nine, though one’s probably a runt. Probably couldn’t find much sand.”

“What?”

Instead of answering, the devil hunter grabbed Nero and pushed him to the side just as the first of the demons came into view before he started walking towards the group. The boy blinked. These Hell Prides looked a lot like pictures of a Grim Reaper he’d seen. Huh. Maybe they’d gotten it from them.

Dante hadn’t been kidding; they weren’t particularly fast. If there hadn’t been so many of them it probably would be easy just to shoot them down before they got anywhere close. One of them also did look a lot smaller than the rest for whatever reason.

“You know, I thought I’d taken care of the last of you guys in the city a couple weeks ago,” Dante said, facing them, but not making any move towards them. “Guess you guys didn’t get the memo to stay away and want to get sent back to Hell.”

The demons just growled and lunged towards the devil hunter who evaded them easily, quickly shooting the closest into sand in only a couple shots. “Hah! You’ll have to be a lot quicker than that,” he taunted them, quickly drawing Rebellion with his right hand and taking out another one while shooting at the others with his left.

Nero watched in awe with wide eyes as his dad kept taking down the demons, making it look extremely easy. He hadn’t got hit even once so far.

In fact, the only time Dante got “hit” during the entire battle was when one of them managed to get a little too close as he was taking down another one and managed to tear his coat. “Oh, come on! These things cost way too much!” he complained before triggering.

If Nero had been in awe before, that was nothing compared to what he felt now. The fight had been going fast, but now he could barely even see his dad as he demolished the remaining demons. He’d been fast before, but in demon form he was even quicker.

One of the demons, the runt, managed to break off from the group while the rest were being killed and made a break for the part devil. He yelped, backing up and hurriedly drew the gun he’d been given, shakily aiming at the demon and pulling the trigger over and over until the demon screeched and turned to sand.

Nero stared at the now empty space, still in a little shock, but quickly snapped out of it when he felt Dante come up behind him and pick him up, crushing him against his chest and making him drop the now empty gun. “You killed your first demon!” he heard his dad exclaim with more than a little pride in his voice before letting him down but keeping his hands on his shoulders and beaming.

The six-year-old looked down, a blush on his face. “It was tiny, not like the ones you fought,” he muttered, rubbing his nose.

“Yep, but you still beat it! I think this calls for some ice cream, let’s go get some.”

“But what about looking around the area? It’s not that big of a deal! I don’t need ice cream just for this!”

“We’ve been all over the area kid, and those are the only ones we’ve sensed. And maybe you don’t need any ice cream, but you sure deserve some.”

“I just killed a demon? I don’t deserve it just for that?” Nero asked, extremely confused. It really wasn’t that big of a deal. It was cool and satisfying, yes, but he didn’t need a treat just for that.

Dante just smiled at him, ruffling his hair. “You kept your head and didn’t just run away scared or freeze up. Believe me, that’s impressive. You also, you know, killed it. Despite what you think you deserve a treat for that.”

“But-“

“Nope, you’re not winning this. Now pick up the gun and let’s get going.”

Nero grumbled, but reluctantly holstered the gun and followed his dad. Despite his words though, he couldn’t keep a pleased smile off his face, happy that his dad was proud of him.

They walked in silence for a little while before the part devil asked something that’d been bugging him but he kept forgetting to ask. “What’s the difference between a devil and demon?”

Dante hummed. “Technically, nothing. A devil is a demon. They’re just intelligent demons, can actually think rather than just mindlessly attack like  regular demons such as those Hell Prides. So basically, a devil is a demon, but a demon isn’t necessarily a devil.”

“Oh. So, is that why you keep saying me and you are part devils?”

“Yep. Lesser demons like we just fought… well, I’m not sure if it’s impossible per se, but they probably wouldn’t leave a human in any position to have a kid with them, so if someone has demon blood it’s from a devil. Hilariously though, some devils get mad if you call them demons.”

“Why?”

“Who knows? Some pretentious crap probably. Either way, it’s hilarious and leaves them wide open, so feel free to call them that if you’re ever up against one.”

“You like taunting demons, don’t you?”

“Hey, it helps make fights fun! You should definitely try it sometime.”

Nero thought about it. It did seem kind of fun actually. Maybe his dad was onto something. “Can you tell me more about other types of demons then?”

What followed was a long conversation involving demons and the best way to fight them over ice cream as they sat outside. (Dante got a strawberry sundae as usual, Nero actually decided to try something different on a waffle cone.) Nero did ask if it was okay to talk about all this in public, but Dante just shrugged and said it was kind of an open secret in this part of town.

The result of the conversation was that Nero wanted to learn how to fight demons too, which Dante seemed a little resistant to. Eventually, they reached a compromise, Dante promising to train him to fight and they’d revisit the subject when he turned ten in a little over three years because he wasn’t going to take a six-year-old out to fight demons.

“Hey, can we go to that Fourth of July festival they’re doing?” Nero asked as they walked back home.

“Sure,” Dante replied. “I usually pop by unless I’m out of town anyway, so yeah we can go.”

The part devil smiled. He’d never been to one before, but he’d heard that they could be fun so he wanted to find out how they were.

* * *

 

Nero scowled, glaring at the stairs and tapping his foot. “Come on old man! I want to get to this festival sometime today!”

“Hold your horses kid, I’m coming.”

The six-year-old stared at his dad as he watched him come down the stairs. “You own jeans? He blurted out.

Dante grinned. “What, you thought I walked around in leather or sweat pants all the time?”

“You do though.”

The devil hunter rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but when I’m going out for something other than hunting demons, why would I?”

“You still do though.”

The man just frowned at him, causing Nero to grin. He knew he’d won this one.

Dante walked over to his coat, throwing it on over his black shirt and holstering his guns underneath it. Nero blinked in confusion. “Wait, why are you wearing that? It’s hot out.”

“Easier to hide my guns with it on. I don’t mind being a little hotter even if I have to try and beat off the fangirls with a stick.”

Nero rolled his eyes, but followed him out the door. “Why are you this way?”

“What way?”

They continued their bickering for a little while until they got to one of the entrances to the festival and Nero stopped dead.

He’d never been to any big festivals before. Or even to a small one actually, nowhere near the orphanage had put on anything for them to go to, so all of this was overwhelming. All of the people, all of the smell, all of the noises… It was way more than he was used to.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and forced himself to focus on it. “First time at something like this?” his dad asked plainly.

Nero nodded. “Is it always so…” he trailed off, not able to describe it.

Dante nodded, giving him a sympathetic look. “Yep. It’s overwhelming, isn’t it? I remember the first time my parents took us to one of these.”

“You mean, you didn’t always go to these?” Nero asked in surprise.

The devil hunter scoffed. “With how Verge and I were little hellions growing up? Please. They didn’t want to take any chances with us. Nope, they didn’t really take us out until the Halloween a little over a week after our fourth birthday as a late present. Went to the store with mom before that, but that wasn’t that often.”

Huh. Nero had just assumed his dad had been to everything as a kid. He sure seemed like he had at least. Maybe their early lives hadn’t been quite as different as he’d assumed.

“So, how did you deal with all this?” he finally asked, gesturing to the festival itself.

Dante grinned. “You thought about it since we started talking?”

Nero blinked. “…No?” he asked in surprise upon realizing that he hadn’t.

“You’re focusing on me, that’s why. Dad told us to stick close to him and focus on him and the aura he gave on whenever we started getting overwhelmed. He was the only non-human around so his was different from everyone else. It worked, so I guess do the same until you get used to all this.”

The part devil frowned, but nodded. It was the best option other than leaving, and he really did want to go to this. They started moving forward again and, after a moment of hesitation, he reached out and took his dad’s hand, keeping his eyes ahead and refusing to meet those ice-colored eyes when they looked at him. It wasn’t something mature to do, he knew that, but it helped him not be overwhelmed so just this once it was fine.

Dante led them away from where he could smell food and a whole bunch of people, instead heading towards a bunch of booths to the side. There were still people over there, but not near as many. “We’ll get some food when it’s calmed down a little,” the man told him. “You see something you want, let me know. And no, you better not try and act like there’s nothing because you don’t want to be a bother.”

Nero looked away, brushing his nose with his free hand. He couldn’t deny that he’d do that.

“Also, if you get a weird feeling from something, tell me immediately. Could be something demonic.”

The part devil cocked his head and looked up at him. “That happens often?”

Dante shrugged. “Fairly often, but it’s usually something benign so I leave it alone unless it’s something I want. Once in a blue moon though it’s something I have to figure out how to destroy before bad stuff happens because of it. So yeah, just get me and don’t touch anything like that until I say it’s okay.” Nero nodded and they went to check everything out.

They didn’t find much of anything for awhile. There were a couple times one of them came across something demonic, but every time Dante took a look at it, he declared it was something he didn’t care about and they just left it. None of the other things really caught their eyes either.

Or at least, not until Nero saw a fairly thick bracelet that seemed to have some sort of demonic energy. He reached over and tugged on Dante’s coat, pointing at the bracelet.

After eyeing it for a few moments, the devil hunter picked it up and examined it closer. “Huh. And here I thought there’d be nothing this time.”

“What does it do?” Nero asked, looking at it closer. It was just a fairly thick light brown bracelet with some sort of tan stone in it, nothing remarkable. If it hadn’t interested his dad he would’ve thought it was something boring like the others.

Dante glanced over at the owner, making sure he was still talking to someone on the other side of the booth, but kept his voice down anyway. “Think it’s some sort of glamour spell. Makes things look like how the wearer wants them to. Can’t change your entire appearance, but if you just want a certain part of your body to look like something, like say you want to hide a nasty scar on your face, it’ll do that. Not the most potent I’ve come across and probably only works for a few hours, but it should work.”

“Cool,” Nero breathed, looking at it in appreciation. “You going to get it?”

The man looked at the price attached to it. “Yeah, may as well. I’ll stuff it with my other stuff like this, never know when it would be helpful,” he said, heading towards the owner to pay for it.

After picking up a necklace at another booth that had a minor curse on it but if Dante could get rid of it would probably sell for quite a bit of cash, they found themselves in another booth selling different types of gloves and other accessories. While Dante was looking at some leather gloves, checking to see if they had his size, Nero wandered around, looking at everything else. Nothing really caught his eye until he was running his hands through some scarfs and found one really, really soft dark red one. He rubbed his face in it, enjoying the softness, a small smile on his face.

“You like that?”

Nero practically jumped a foot, whirling around to find Dante grinning down at him. “I… yeah…” he mumbled, looking down.

His dad just grinned, ruffling his hair and grabbing the scarf with the same hand that held a couple pairs of gloves. “You’ll probably want a scarf when it gets cold, so may as well get one now. Besides, it is really soft, you have good taste.”

Nero rubbed his nose. (Which he really needed to quit doing, Lady had all but cooed at him when he first did it around her and just made him even more embarrassed.) “But I don’t need it right now.”

“And?”

“You shouldn’t get it now.”

“Kid, if I don’t, we probably won’t find another one like it when you do. I told you that I’d get you whatever you want and this is about the only thing you’ve shown interest in besides that bracelet and you have even less use for that right now. Besides, if you’re worried about the price, it’s actually cheaper than most of the ones you can find in a store. You’re getting it.”

None of Nero’s protests could change his mind, and within five minutes the scarf and gloves were paid for and the bag hidden in one of Dante’s coat pockets. (He was starting to wonder how large his coat pockets were.)

After a quick sweep of the remaining booths, they headed towards the food area, which had thankfully thinned out. “What do you want?” Dante asked. “I was going to make some burgers for dinner, but anything else is fine.”

Nero looked around, frowning a little at all the choices. “…I guess a hot dog and some fries?”

Dante bought him three from a vender, getting himself a couple personal pizzas from another one, which made the part devil roll his eyes because he had expected nothing else when he’d seen pizza was an option.

They found a small area in some shade away from the majority of people. Two of the hot dogs and one and a half pizzas were eaten before either of them spoke, having just enjoyed the other’s presence before.

It was only when Nero saw a kid carrying a little devil stuffed plushie that he thought of something to ask. “So, do any demons actually look like that?”

Dante looked up to see the stuffed animal (or demon as it were) and snorted. “Not that I’ve seen. There might be and I haven’t come across one, but I kinda doubt it. Kind of surprised they're giving those away in this city actually.”

“Those Hell Prides looked like the Grim Reaper.”

“Yeah, they did, but something about the stereotypical satan thing just seems off to me. Like I said, one might exist, but still.”

Nero just made a noise of understanding through the fries in his mouth.

Once they had finished eating, Dante gathered up their trash and threw it into a convenient garbage can. “You want to go look at the games or do you need to go home to use the bathroom?”

Nero tilted his head. “They don’t have anything here to pee in?”

“Well, they do have porta potties, but believe me, you don’t want to use those. I thought about it once. I almost threw up from the smell. Seriously, the worst part about being half devil is the sense of smell.”

The part devil couldn’t help but agree. Some things just smelled too bad to his sensitive nose. “I think I’m fine for now,” he told him. “So what are these games you are talking about?”

* * *

 

The rest of the afternoon went fairly fast.

Nero had a blast playing some of the carnival games they had set up, winning several prizes, including a fairly big white wolf plushie he’d barely let go of since he’d won it in on of those bottle shooting games. Dante had been unreasonably proud of his son after the person in charge of said game mentioned that he had the best record he’d seen all day.

They would’ve kept demolishing records in the games for awhile longer, but unfortunately the people in charge had for some reason thought it a good idea to have a couple country bands play, so they left in a hurry because neither of them particularly liked that genre.

When they got home, Nero immediately made a beeline to the bathroom on the first floor. Dante snickered quietly, opening the armory he kept warded and throwing the bracelet in a chest with some other items he’d found before and leaving the necklace on a small table to the side so he could look at it later.

It was only after he’d already closed it that he realized he’d yet to show Nero any of his Devil Arms besides Rebellion. Maybe that would be a good idea to do the next month, showing all of them off and letting him get used to them.

Thinking about who best to start him with, he hung up his coat and headed upstairs to use that bathroom.

They sat around for awhile, watching some stupid show on the small TV that Dante should probably replace sometime soon because the picture always seemed a little off. Nero kept the stuffed animal that he’d apparently dubbed Lupa in his arms, making him look even more like an adorable little kid than usual. After watching a couple shows and feeling himself losing a few brain cells from the stupidity (it would have been more than a few if they hadn’t snarked their way through the shows), Dante got up and started making the hamburgers.

After eating, Nero asked if they were going back to the festival to watch the fireworks. “Nope, at this point we probably won’t get even a half decent spot,” he replied, causing his son to pout. He grinned. “Don’t worry, we can watch them from the roof. Probably a better option actually, fireworks are pretty loud. Still have a couple hours to kill, they probably won’t set them off until nine.”

“Can we read some more then? I want to find out why that weird elf wants to keep Harry from going to Hogwarts.”

They actually got so into the story that they almost missed how dark it was getting, meaning they’d probably set off the fireworks soon. They didn’t really want to stop yet, but Nero also really didn’t want to miss the fireworks, so they headed outside.

“How are we going to get up there?”

“Usually I just wall jump.”

“Like in games?”

“Yep, but cooler.”

Nero thought for a moment. Dante eyed him, wondering if he didn’t want to admit he had no idea how to, which wasn’t anything to be ashamed of at all, not many people could after all. However, he instead asked, “You have wings in your devil form, right?”

Dante rose an eyebrow. “You want me to fly you up there?” His son nodded eagerly, causing him to grin. Without saying anything more, he triggered, grabbed his son, and flew them up to the roof.

Nero had the widest grin on his face when he was put down. “Can you do that again?” he asked eagerly.

Dante just laughed as he de-triggered, ruffling his hair. “Maybe later, they should be setting them off soon, so we should get comfortable.”

They did just that, Nero plopping into his lap without any argument for once, which made him extremely happy. Any cuddles without complaining was even better than just regular cuddles.

They didn’t have to wait long. With a loud boom that made Nero flinch, the first firework sailed into the air. Dante placed his hands over his son’s ears, giving him a bit of a buffer until he could get used to it.

The show lasted about fifteen minutes, longer than the year before if Dante remembered right. He didn’t watch all of the show, just enjoying the look of enrapturement and joy that graced Nero’s face as he watched the fireworks.

Even when the show ended, they sat there for a little while longer, just enjoying the night. “Do they do them every year?” Nero finally asked.

“Yep, and if they don’t other towns in the area do them, so we can always figure out somewhere to go if you want to.”

Nero gave him a brilliant grin. “I’d like that.”

After that, Dante triggered again and flew back down, making sure to linger in the air a bit so his son could enjoy the feeling as long as he could. Feeling him yawn against he chest as they walked in, he smiled and took him upstairs, tucking him in and watched him cuddle up with Lupa. “Night, Nero.”

“Mmm… night dad.”

Dante froze for a long moment, before smiling and stroking his son’s hair and leaving the room, stripping down to his boxers and crawling into his own bed, the smile never leaving his face as he drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer wait, I got Project X Zone for cheap and I've been playing that a lot. It's really fun seeing Dante and Vergil actually acting like siblings in their dialogue with each other. Kind of weird since we haven't really gotten to see that in game, but still fun.
> 
> This chapter actually wasn't all in my original plans. Well, the first part kind of was, but the festival for the Fourth came about because I realized that I had the story started in the summer and it was a good idea so I ran with it.
> 
> The devil vs demon thing I don't think is technically in the game, but I'm not the first one I've seen that made a distinction, so I can't take credit for it.
> 
> It's canon that they have better senses than regular humans, and while I may be overdoing it, I feel like they would have to adjust to stuff like a festival since they'd probably overwhelm them the first time.
> 
> You know the scarf in the special edition outfit Nero wears? It's that scarf. I couldn't decide what color exactly it was in the official render I saw, so I went with dark red. If I'm wrong, please tell me and I'll correct it. Also, I'm debating about having that be Nero's outfit later on to better match his dad and because I just like it more.
> 
> I mean no offense to anyone that like country music, I just can't see either of them listening to it.
> 
> I don't really have anything else to say. Next chapter will have more fluff and a little sads
> 
> (By the way, today is my birthday? Do you know what would be an amazing gift? Commenting so we can squee about how adorable smol!Nero is and how stupid people in story were for not liking him.)


	6. Memories of the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante tells Nero about his past after some prompting. Nero tries to help him however he can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... bit of a warning, there's sad Dante talking about his past. I've made my own version of him growing up, so it's probably a little different, but I'm just warning you guys.

Nero tried to focus on the cartoon he’d found on the old tv, but he kept glancing at the door every other minute, hoping that his dad would come in while he was staring at it.

It wasn’t the first time that he’d been left alone. Devil hunting was how Dante made a living, so it was kind of inevitable. A couple days ago he’d been gone most of the night actually. Someone had called about demons being sighted at the other side of the city and the man had headed out before too much damage could be done. The part devil had tried to stay up to wait for him, but had inevitably dozed off, only partially awakening when warm arms had picked him up and carried him to bed.

This though… he and Lady were supposed to be back over an hour ago. Sure, they’d gone to take out a devil hiding in a factory out of town, but shouldn’t they have been done by now? Apparently sometimes they had problems getting their pay, but it shouldn’t take that long to track the person that hired them down, should it?

Nero almost jumped up in relief when the door opened and the two devil hunters came in, but froze when the scent of blood reached him and he saw the ruined state of his dad’s clothes. “What happened?” he asked fearfully.

Dante just shook his head, not looking at him. “Nothing. That devil was just a little harder to deal with than we thought. I’m not hurt, don’t worry.”

Nero couldn’t do anything other than just sit there and watch his dad walk upstairs, looking so drawn and tired. He started to go after him, but was stopped by Lady, who reached out a hand and gripped his shoulder.

The brunette looked better than his dad did, only having a couple cuts on her, the grime mostly from a bunch of dirt soiling her white shirt, but she looked exhausted all the same. She sighed. “He’s healed, don’t worry about that. All the blood you probably smelled on him is either old or the devil’s.”

“What happened?” the six-year-old asked in a small voice.

Lady sighed again, sitting down next to him. “The devil was an illusionist. He wasn’t strong physically, but he more than made up for it with that. There were a couple demons hanging around the factory when we got there, but we easily took care of those. The devil though… it was crafty, I’ll give it that. It lured us further in the factory, managing to split us up. I was lucky. It just sent a few illusions after me to slow me down, and none of them were that debilitating. It wanted Dante, not me. By the time I got to them, it had managed to pin him down and was forcing him to relive some of his worst memories, trying to force him to give up. I tried calling out to him to get him out of it, but the devil was ready for me and sent more illusions to keep me busy.”

“How… how did he get out of it?” Nero made himself ask.

Lady shook her head. “I’m not entirely sure. Dante’s good at shaking those type of things. Might have to do with who his dad was, he was one of the strongest devils to exist after all.” Before Nero could ask about that because that just raised some more questions, she continued, “I don’t know exactly though. I wasn’t even watching them when it happened. I just heard him scream and suddenly looked over to see Dante launch himself at the devil and rip it to shreds, not even noticing any injuries he took. He’s been like you saw since then. Not that I can blame him, the few things I know happened to him wouldn’t be pleasant for him to remember, and I doubt it stopped at just those things.”

Nero looked down, wanting to cry for his dad. He didn’t deserve any of that to happen. Ever since he’d gotten here he’d been nothing but nice and caring towards him, always trying to help him with whatever he needed. Why did this all have to happen to him?

He heard Lady sigh next to him, making him realize that he had said that last bit aloud. “I don’t know why,” she said softly, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Honestly? If I were in his place I would have cracked years ago with all the shit he’s gone through. The fact that he’s able to even get up at the start of the day… I don’t know how he does it.”

She sighed again, standing up reluctantly. “The last time something like this happened, it took him a couple weeks to get out of it. I don’t know if anything will change, but… just try talking to him and don’t leave him, okay? At the very least you being here should help a little, him having someone that needs him.”

“Do you have someone?” the question slipped from Nero’s lips before he could stop it.

Lady didn’t look back at him, just grabbed her weapons and left.

Nero thought he’d crossed a line there and felt horrible, but those thoughts went out of his head when he saw his dad come down the stairs, barely even glancing at him as he headed towards the kitchen. “Just go upstairs to bed, kid,” he said in a quiet, defeated voice.

He didn’t listen and followed Dante into the kitchen, finding him sitting on one of the bar stools and opening a bottle of beer. The man sighed. “Kid, please. Just go to bed.”

Nero shook his head, climbing up the stool next to him. “No. I won’t. You’re a dumbass if you think I’ll let you drink yourself to death.”

The half devil gave a humorless laugh. “Believe me, I’ve tried before. Doesn’t work, my body pushes the alcohol out too fast.”

Nero’s eyes widened. “You’ve tried-“ he cut himself off, a lump forming in his throat.

Dante quickly shook his head. “No, I haven’t,” he said softly. “I’ve tried getting drunk to forget about everything, but it never works. All I get is a few seconds where the burn takes the edge off before I’m back to square one.”

Nero look down, kicking his legs into the empty air beneath them. “Why do you keep trying then?”

“I don’t know what else to do,” he said softly, staring at the bottle.

They sat in silence for a couple minutes, Dante staring at the bottle and occasionally raising it to his lips while Nero stared at the surface of the bar.

Finally, Nero asked, “Why does this happen to you?”

Dante shook his head. “Always been this way. Sins of the father and all that bull.”

That didn’t answer anything. “What do you mean?”

The half devil didn’t answer for several long moments. “Just go to bed.”

“No! Not until you give me some answers!” Nero all but yelled at him. “You keep dodging this subject and I’m sick of it! Just tell me!”

Dante just stared at him, eyes wide. After a moment, he turned and cradled his head in his hands, shoulders shaking. After a moment, he said, voice muffled and barely audible, “I didn’t want to tell you like this.”

Nero bit his lip, tempted to tell him to forget about it and just go to bed, but he wouldn’t let himself do that. His dad was hurting, he wanted him to feel better, and he was curious.

Dante made a deep sigh before standing and finishing off the bottle. Taking Nero into his arms, he headed upstairs. For a moment, the six-year-old was scared that he’d dump him into his bed and carry on with what he was doing without interruption, but he instead headed straight to his own room and made them comfortable on the bed.

After several long moments, Dante sighed again. “It’s not a pretty story,” he warned.

Nero just cuddled closer to him. “I don’t care,” he said quietly.

Another sigh. Finally, the half devil started his story.

“For almost the first five years of my life, we were happy. Just me, my twin, my mom and dad. It probably wasn’t perfect, but compared to how the rest of my life’s been it sure as hell seems that way. We were just a normal family- well, as normal as a human, a devil, and two half devil twins can be at least.

“I think dad knew it wouldn’t last though. I don’t know if mom or Verge ever noticed, but I remember times where he just stared out the window with a troubled, almost scared look on his face. Him giving Rebellion and Yamato to us when he did… it doesn’t make me hate the memory, it’s still one of the ones I always want to keep, but the fact he gave it to us that early… he had enemies. Enemies that hated him for turning traitor on his own kind for what they see as a bunch of weaklings. I think… I think he always knew how it would end and he wanted us to have something to keep us safe when he wasn’t around anymore. He knew they’d come for us because of who he was.”

Nero wasn’t an idiot. He was young, yes, but far from stupid. A devil turning traitor on his own kind for humanity… “Who was he?” he asked, sure he knew the answer already.

Dante sighed again. “Sparda. All those stories of him marrying a human woman and having kids with her were true, just around two thousand years off.”

Well. The part devil couldn’t say he was surprised. A little shocked, yeah, but not really surprised when he thought about it. It definitely explained a couple things, and was also a little relieving to know that his grandpa was definitely a good guy. And that he had ammo against that stupid priest he’d better never see again because grandkid of Sparda trumps some stupid priest that sprouts a bunch of bullshit any day of the week. But mostly the good guy thing.

His dad looked at him. “You don’t look that surprised.”

“Well… it’s kind of nice to know that the devil I got my blood from was really a good guy I guess.”

Dante gave a small smile. “Plus, it makes you a better source than some stupid priest.”

Nero looked away, rubbing his nose. “...Just get on with it.”

The half devil stared up at the wall, smile wiped from his face. “As you know, he’s dead. Went and got himself killed. Don’t ask me how, I don’t know the details. All I know is that one night I woke up knowing somehow that he was gone and wasn’t coming back.”

He let out a shaky breath, closing his eyes. “I don’t know if Verge had the same feeling or not, we’d stopped sharing a room at that point and I didn’t hear anything from him. I think he did, he just tried deluding himself into thinking that he was wrong and our dad could come back for awhile. Mom… she’d been a devil hunter herself before we were born. She knew better than us what could have been waiting in ambush for him at that point. When he didn’t come back and she’d had me wake her up crying…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

“I hated him for the longest time. Mom tried to hide it from us, but she cried a lot over him. Dad had saved the human world by sealing Hell away from it, but he couldn’t keep himself alive for his kids. Knowing what I do now, he probably didn’t have much of a chance if they got the drop on him, and he’d sealed most of his powers away when he made the seal, so he may have technically been even weaker than I am now. Still probably would shoot him if he somehow got revived and made his way here, but I get some of it now.”

“You’re still mad at him though, aren’t you.” Nero wasn’t asking a question.

Dante sighed. “Yeah. I am a bit. But I’m just tired of all the anger towards him. It wasn’t all his fault.

“Anyway, mom kept us on the move for almost four years. We didn’t stay anywhere for long, didn’t really make any plans before she decided to move again. We may have been cut off from making real friends with people our age, but we were alive and that’s all she really cared about at that point. For four years we had each other at least.”

Dante went quiet for a minute. Nero really wanted to ask what happened, but he figured it was a better idea to just let him talk on his own time. Besides, he was really wondering what was going to come next.

“It was just after we’d eaten dinner. Verge had run off and I was sitting around. I think I was looking at Rebellion, I know I had her on me and usually I left her in my room when we were just sitting at home. One moment all was peaceful, just a normal night with us, but then mom suddenly slumped over the table, the most terrified look I’d ever seen on her face.

“Before I could even ask, she grabbed me and shoved me in a closet at the back of the house, ordering me to stay there and not let anything sense me and that she needed to find Verge. The last thing I remember of her was her hugging me and telling me she loved me.”

He took in a deep, shaky breath. “I don’t know if she found Verge and hid him or not. I didn’t even know he’d survived until years later. All I know is that I hadn’t been sitting there for long, just clutching Rebellion and staring at the door before I heard the windows of the front room shatter.

“Mom fought, but like probably happened with dad... she had no chance. I don’t know how the demons didn’t find me there. Maybe Verge had somehow fled and they thought he was the only kid of dad’s. I have no idea. All I know is that I stayed in that closet for what seemed like hours after all the demons had left. I only came out when I smelled smoke. The scene I saw…”

Dante cut himself off, a chocked sob escaping his lips before he rolled over so he wasn’t facing Nero. He panicked, all but launching himself over his dad and forcing himself into his arms in an attempt to comfort him. The man didn’t even protest, just clutched onto him like his life depended on it, sobbing into his shoulder. Nero just held onto him, wanting to cry himself at how much his dad was hurting.

Eventually, Dante was able to calm down enough to continue the story. “I don’t completely know what happened after that. I was out of it for at more than a week, not really conscious, just going through the motions. Eventually, I met some older street kids that took pity on me and took me under their wings. It was a few more days before I was able to tell them anything, finally introducing myself… as Tony Redgrave.”

Nero tilted his head, trying to look at his dad’s face. “So, is that why that name’s on your guns? You just used a fake name?”

“Not exactly. I was using a fake name… but I really thought that was my name, that I was a normal human being. I basically had some extreme form of amnesia. Wasn’t a split personality, I mean I pretty much always acted the same way, and it’s not like I completely forgot who I was. It’s more… I think I took what mom told me way too far. I hid my devil side, even to myself. I didn’t completely seal it- I still unconsciously knew who I was even if I didnt acknowledge it, I still never got sick and healed fast from any injury, if slower than usual because I was hiding myself- but it was good enough for years.”

“What made you remember?”

Dante was silent for several long moments, wrapping his arms even tighter around him. “I stayed that way for years, helped the street kids I ended up with survive. A couple of them taught me how to shoot better, I mean mom did a little but she needed to conserve ammo, so they were really the ones that did it. I was really hard on the guns though, kept breaking them with my strength even though I wasn’t going anywhere near full out.

“Eventually, I met a woman named Nell Goldstein. Possibly one of the best gunsmiths ever to exist, if really bad at spelling. I mean, she always spelled ‘work’ as ‘warks!’ Anyway, I don’t know why she kept putting up with me. Doubt I’ll get an answer. But she kept giving me old guns she was tinkering with in her spare time even though she always got annoyed at me when they inevitably got broken. The real change came when I was sixteen. I was becoming more and more aware of what I was. Still denying it, but even if stuff hadn’t happened it was only a matter of time.

“One day, Nell got one of the other kids to tell me to meet her that day. I was hesitant, I had seen a few low-level demons hanging around and would rather take care of them first, but if Nell told you to do something you did it. Kind of like my mom, actually, she ruled the house.

“When I got there, she dragged me to the back and showed me the parts to two guns, making me assemble them before telling me they were mine, free of charge. I tried arguing with her, but she wouldn’t have it. She was retiring soon and wanted the last guns she made for someone to be a challenge, and she couldn’t think of a better one than making guns for a guy that kept breaking all of them. She’d modeled them after Luce and Ombra, the two guns my dad had given my mom that I’d taken with me when I fled even though I never used them, figuring that those were as good of a base as any.”

“So, she made you Ebony and Ivory?”

Dante nodded. “She made me assemble them so she could say they were mine, that I’d made them, but all the pieces were her doing.” He sighed yet again. “Unfortunately, as I was leaving, a demon broke in. It wasn’t strong at all, but it did catch Nell by surprise. Worst of all, it managed to set itself on fire with some of the gunpowder she had laying around, taking some of her store with it.

“I panicked. The sprinklers came on and I shot the demon to pieces, but it was too late. The scene was too close to what happened to my mom when I had rushed in and seen her unconscious on the floor. Everything came rushing back to me and I used my demonic powers for the first time in years, creating bullets for my guns with them.

“I called for an ambulance, passing myself off as a concerned bystander, leaving before they got there. I stuck around long enough to hear that she’d pull through, then left town.”

Nero frowned. “Why didn’t you stay? You said it yourself, you weren’t all that different.”

Dante was silent for several long moments. “I wasn’t Tony Redgrave. That made all the difference.”

The part devil scowled. “You’re not making any sense.”

“Tony Redgrave was fully human. Dante isn’t. With all my memories back, I couldn’t be that. I had no idea how to hide my aura like I do now. If I’d stayed, demons would have realized that Sparda’s son was there. I’d have put all of them in danger. I didn’t want to, but I left, wandering for months before settling down here in Capulet to start a devil hunting business.”

Dante took a deep breath, running his hand through Nero’s hair. “I didn’t quite know what I was doing. I was basically flying blind when setting this place up. I did have some contacts, but it took a long time to get going. Worst is who showed up shortly after I turned seventeen. Vergil. I thought he was dead. He probably thought I was dead too, there was shock on his face before it was wiped away. He wanted me to come with him. He told me that the only way to survive was to renounce our human sides and fully embrace our demonic heritage. I told him that was a load of bullshit. It sure as hell didn’t help our father and it didn’t help all the demons I took down. We fought, not with swords for once, but with bitter words. He left, telling me that I’d regret not following him.”

Dante let out a snort. “The hypocrite. He didn’t realize that repressing his human side was just as bad as me repressing my devil side. Sure he was able to beat me the first time, but once I stopped being stupid and accepted who I was, it was way more even. Took meeting him a year later to realize how stupid I was being about it all though.”

Another silence. Nero didn’t try to break it this time. He didn’t know what exactly was coming, but he knew that it wasn’t going to be something remotely happy.

“It was almost a year later that anything happened. Hell, it was just over a week after our birthday. Vergil sure had no idea what I wanted, so he decided raising a hell tower was a good idea since he wanted our father’s power. The selfish bastard,” the half devil spit out, voice breaking a bit the last syllable.

He took a deep breath before launching back into the story. “Temen-ni-gru. It was basically The Hell Tower, the one where Sparda fully began his rebellion, the one he sealed his powers at. I don’t know how they managed to raise the tower itself and I’m not going to find out. No idea how they got it over here, I always thought the rebellion happened somewhere in Europe from what little dad had told us, but I’m not going to think too much about it.

“A creepy old guy named Arkham, the actual mastermind behind the whole thing- not that Vergil would have done any different with the way he’d been acting a year before- gave me my dear twin’s invitation to the party. I would have taken it even if a bunch of demons hadn’t shown up and wrecked my shop, he’d pissed me off the year before.

“When I finally got to the top of that damned tower, I saw Vergil for the first time in a year. We fought. It seemed no matter what I tried to do, he was always on top. Eventually, he managed to overpower me, stabbing me with Yamato and twisting that katana around to make sure I wouldn’t be able to heal easily. He started walking off after taking what he wanted, but when I regained enough strength to almost sit up, he grabbed Rebellion and drove her through my chest and pinned me to the floor.”

He sighed. “I’m still not sure why she let him do that. Usually when someone that’s not me tries to use her, she refuses to let them, especially if they try turning her against me. It wasn’t because he was my twin, I know that for sure. But… while I was lying there in pain, it felt like I could hear her, telling me that I was an idiot, that if I didn’t accept who I was she may as well let me bleed out right there because it’d happen anyway if I continued on this path, so maybe it was her way of looking out for me, some sort of tough love. Either way, I did, I accepted my devil side, almost out of spite more than anything else.”

Nero was silent for a moment. That sounded like what he’d said had happened when… “Was that when you first Devil Triggered?”

Dante nodded. “It was. Sometimes I wonder if it would have happened naturally if I wasn’t denying my heritage. Don’t have any idea though, guess we'll find out with you. Either way, it was painful, but the rush of power I got at the same time…” he shook his head as if to clear it. “Anyway, Vergil had slipped away with Arkham. I didn’t meet him again until I had gotten to the basement. The fight was a little more even then, but we were interrupted by Arkham before we could find out the victor. He hijacked the ritual, having waited until we wore ourselves down, probably because he knew that he didn’t stand a chance against us at full strength with the power he had at the time. He managed to somehow take Sparda’s power. Not sure how exactly he managed it, but it did backfire on him, turned himself into a giant blob.”

Nero just stared at him, a blank look on his face. “A giant blob.”

“Yep.”

“Why.”

“Who knows. Couldn’t handle the power I guess. Or maybe dear old dad decided to actually do something useful and corrupted him for trying to kill his kids. Whatever. Either way, that was the first and last time Vergil and I teamed up, neither of us wanted him to have our dad’s power.”

Dante closed his eyes again, seeming to try and steel himself to finish the story. “It didn’t last. Immediately after, we started fighting again. Vergil wanted dad’s power. I didn’t want him to have it, not with what I thought he was going to do with it, with how he treated humans. It was still kind of close, but in the end, he was the one down on his knees. I wasn’t in tip top shape, but he was worse off.” He snorted. “You’d think twins would be on the same playing field. In the end, we were completely different. I tried reaching out for him, but he willingly fell into hell. I still don’t know exactly what happened to him to make him that way, and I doubt I’ll ever find out now.”

Silence reigned for several long minutes. Nero couldn’t stop thinking about everything he’d learned. It… definitely explained a lot.

Lady was right though. How was Dante still so caring, still able to get out of bed and put a smile on his face? With what had happened to him, why hadn’t he taken his brother’s offer and gone with his last family?

“Because it wasn’t what I wanted.” Nero’s head shot up to stare at his dad. Dante just gave a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You said it aloud. Seriously, it wasn’t. I wanted my brother back. Vergil… he’d changed. I could tell that the moment I saw him. He was still my twin, but he almost wasn’t my brother anymore. If I’d gone with him, it probably wouldn’t have changed a thing. We would have still been at odds.”

Dante closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face. “I just want my family back,” he whispered, barely loud enough to be heard

Nero frowned again. “But you do. I’m here, dad.”

Dante’s eyes shot open to stare at him. Rapidly blinking his eyes to try and keep the tears in, he just embraced his son, letting the tears fall, a mixture of emotions neither of them could fully identify.

They stayed like that for at least an hour until both managed to fall asleep, neither of them having any dreams for once.

* * *

 

Nero tried to fall back asleep when he first started waking up. He was so warm and comfortable. Eventually though, the sound of breathing made his eyes shoot open, finding himself face to face with his dad’s chest.

He barely kept himself from yelping in embarrassment, the events of the night before coming back to him. He really wanted to stay and enjoy the warmth, but his dad needed something to help get his mind off of things.

He extracted himself from the arms around him, rushing into his own room and coming back with Lupa, setting the stuffed animal in his dad’s arms. Dante mumbled something indistinct and cuddled her to his chest, forcing him to stifle a giggle.

It was only when he got to the kitchen that Nero realized the flaw in his plan. He had meant to make his dad something for breakfast to try and get his mind off of things, but he had no idea how to cook. At all. He’d probably burn down the kitchen before he made something edible.

Frowning, he looked in the fridge, rummaging around to try and find something. He grinned in triumph when he found a couple of leftover sausages from the day before. The freezer had a similar result, yielding some frozen whatever they were to put in the toaster.

He immediately stuffed the sausage in the microwave and the whatever it was in the toaster, turning around to pull out some orange juice. It took some climbing on the counters, but he managed to get down a glass and fill it with some of the drink, gulping down another glass for himself while he waited.

Once the food was done, he put both items on a plate before grabbing the glass and walking back upstairs to give breakfast to his dad.

* * *

 

Dante had a split second of panic when he woke up to find his son not there before he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and was able to relax. He eyed the stuffed animal he was holding before shrugging. No doubt Nero had seen him cuddle with it when he gave it to him so no point in letting it go now.

He raised an eyebrow when he saw Nero push the door open, a plate and glass in hand. The six-year-old waited for him to sit up before handing him the glass and dropping the plate on his lap.

“I made breakfast,” he explained, looking at him earnestly. After a second, he facepalmed. “I forgot a fork! I’ll be back!”

Dante just watched him rush off dumbfounded before looking back down at the plate. It really wasn’t anything special, just three leftover sausages and one of those toaster strudel things with some orange juice. The fact that Nero cared enough to get him breakfast and bring it to him…

He didn’t even notice that his son had come back until he poked him in the side with a finger. “Dad?”

The half devil just grabbed his son, hugging him while burying his face in his hair, just inhaling his scent and letting it relax him. “Thank you,” he breathed.

“It- it’s just breakfast,” came the reply, the kid instinctively trying to rub the nose buried in his chest and failing.

Dante shook his head. “More than that,” he whispered, choked up with emotion.

Nero didn’t reply for a moment. “I just… I just want you to be happy dad. You try to make me happy and I want you to be too.”

The half devil let out a small chuckle. “You make me happy, don’t worry about it.”

“Stop it! That sounds so cheesy!”

“Does a little bit, but it’s true!” If he could see his son’s face, no doubt it would be bright red.

All he heard was some indistinct mumbles. “Hmm? What was that?”

“Quit it!”

“Quit what?”

“Saying all those cheesy things!”

“Ki- Nero, I thrive off of saying cheesy lines, it’s not going to happen.”

More mumbles. “Just eat your food dad. It’s getting cold.”

Dante laughed at him, but for once did as he was told, trying to offer one of the sausages to his son, who just refused it and practically yelled at him to eat it himself.

Once he was done, Nero all but pushed him out of bed to go take the dirty dishes downstairs, making him put everything in the dishwasher and turn it on. Then he dragged him upstairs and made him actually get dressed because just wearing sweatpants and no shirt wasn’t going to cut it and they needed more food anyway.

Dante was glad for it even if he acted like he was annoyed at how bossy Nero was being. When stuff that made the memories resurface happened, he had a bad habit of just moping around the house, trying to drink himself into oblivion and generally not doing anything even slightly productive. Having someone there that wasn’t having any of it and tried getting him out of it some other way than threatening to shoot him was liberating in a way. It being his son doing this, someone he couldn’t let down or ignore, made it even more effective.

“We can get pizza for lunch if you want.”

“Oh, you’re willing not to beg for Chinese? What happened to the annoying little kid?”

All he got was a glare. “Shut up! I try to be nice and you just annoy me!”

Dante laughed. To his relief, it didn’t sound strained. He hadn’t forgotten the illusions he’d seen the day before, but they were relegated to the back of his mind for now. No doubt they’d try to come back soon, but at least he had a kid that was perfectly willing to kick his ass into gear if he just tried moping around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter went nowhere I expected.  
> I meant for this to be more fluff, but nooooo Dante decided to have another breakdown. Granted the guy needs it, he keeps way too much in, but did he really have to do it now?
> 
> Anyway, so the backstory is a mishmash of stuff. We don’t know what happened exactly, so I just took inspiration from the novels and stuff. Nell Goldstein had to have existed somehow if Nico is any indication, and she’s awesome, so I added her. I didn’t want to kill her because I may or may not have an idea for her later on, so Dante sort of being on the track to remembering and having something similar to what happened to his mom fully triggering his memory happened.
> 
> Vergil… I feel like Dante has a lot of conflicted feelings towards him, ones he’s not really fully letting on to Nero. He wants his brother back, yes, but not the person he became. The idea that Dante was winning that final fight came from me rewatching that end scene. Dante definitely looked kind of out of breath, but that was nowhere near what Vergil looked like. The idea that Dante was stronger right then because he accepted who he was might be a false one, but Dante doesn’t completely know either so he’s kind of just assuming.
> 
> Seriously though, I have mixed feelings about this chapter. I don’t like it all that much, but it’s here and it does cover things I wanted to eventually, so even if it’s pretty much all just an info dump I guess it can stay. Next chapter we will definitely be back to the regularly scheduled fluff and Dante being Dante, don’t worry, so hopefully that makes up a little bit for whatever this is.


	7. Discussions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante finally remembers to show his son some of his Devil Arms. And then Lady decides to come in and ruin the good mood with talk of school.

It took just over a week for things to get more or less back to normal.

Dante despised the fact that he had basically fallen apart in front of his son yet again. Why did this keep happening? He was usually a master at keeping everything in when people were around and then attempting to drink himself into oblivion when they left. What was it about his son that made him unable to do that? He wanted to protect him after all, so shouldn’t he find it difficult to let himself fall apart anywhere near him? Sure, Nero was understanding and kicked his ass into gear when he thought he was wallowing in misery too much (sometimes literally), but it was still the complete opposite of his assumptions.

(Maybe the thought he had at the beginning, that he needed his son more than his son could ever need him, was right. It was helping him not fall into yet another pit of depression at least.)

Nero had taken the revelation of who his grandpa was and what had happened to Dante in the past a lot better than he’d thought. Granted he didn’t actually go into that much detail, but he’d have thought that he’d freak out way more. Maybe it would’ve been fine to tell him the whole Sparda thing at the start… Eh, it worked out either way so whatever, no point in wondering.

Dante was jolted out of his thoughts by a white-haired projectile launching onto him while he was reclining in his favorite position at his desk, causing him to topple over and slam his head on the floor. Groaning and lifting a hand to his throbbing head, he glared at his son. “What the hell was that for?”

Nero returned the glare. “You were going into another one of those stupid self-pity things again.”

The half devil just sighed. “No, I was not-“

“You were! You were sitting there with one of those depressed looks on your face!”

“-and even if I was that would be no reason to give me a freaking concussion!”

“You’ll heal.”

“Wow. I feel so loved. I can feel how much you care.”

Nero just muttered as he got off him, something that sounded like “You better.”

Well, Dante really could- questionable methods aside, he was trying to help keep him out of the pit- but saying it out loud would make things way too awkward, so he just ruffled his son’s hair and he forced himself up, keeping his right hand up to rub at his temples. His head was already feeling better, thank whatever for fast healing.

Picking up the chair and placing it back in it’s normal position, “So, kid, I keep forgetting, but you want to see my Devil Arms, don’t you?”

“Yes!” Nero exclaimed, an excited look on his face that made him think of a puppy. An angry puppy that liked to fight, but a puppy nonetheless.

Dante just grinned, ruffling his hair again, dodging the expected swat to his hand, and headed towards the back, son following close behind like a duckling.

Once he got to the closed door to his armory, he muttered a couple words to open the wards. Nero watched him, fascinated. “Did you just dispel it?” He asked.

The devil hunter snorted. “Hell no. I’d have to recast and that’s too much work. Nah, I just… well, paused them might be the best way to put it, put them on hold so you can get in without problems.”

“So I have free access to the cool weapons?”

Dante couldn’t help it, he laughed at him. “Nope! You got a couple years left before I’ll give you that much power kid!”

Nero pouted. “But you let me use guns, what’s the problem with Devil Arms?”

“First off, I let you learn how to use puny guns. Ones that take practically all the bullets to take down a Hell Pride.”

“Shouldn’t that mean you let me learn how to use better ones so I can fight off any demons that attack me?”

Damn. The kid was good at manipulation. He had a point, but… “We’ll talk about that later. Anyway, Devil Arms are also just extremely powerful most of the time. I mean, considering how only extremely powerful devils leave them behind, it makes sense, but still. You have to best them in some sort of combat to get them, pass some sort of test they set out for you.”

“So, how’d you get Rebellion then? You said your dad gave her to you.”

“He did, but I still had to pass her test first. She probably scaled her test back, I mean I was four at the time, but she made me withstand… well, I don’t think it was technically electricity, but probably the closest comparison. Anyway, I had to withstand a bunch of demonic energy coming from her. Hurt more than anything else in my life had at this point, but compared to a bunch of the stuff that’s happened to me since then it was really nothing.”

And now he’d made his kid worried again. Great. Why did that always happen… “Hey, I’m standing right in front of you. I’m perfectly fine, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what? So I get hurt sometimes, better me than someone that’d take months to heal from something that would take me minutes.”

Nero looked down, kicking his foot at some nonexistent dust. (Or at least there better not be any, he’d just mopped the floor four days ago.) “I just don’t want you to be hurt…” he mumbled.

Dante sighed, kneeling in front of him. “I don’t want you to get hurt either Nero. But hey, at least we know we’ll heal, right?”

The six-year-old frowned. “But my healing isn’t as fast as yours.”

He shrugged. “Eh, think mine’s gotten better over the years, so yours will probably do the same. Even if not, it’s still better than most everything else’s so it’ll be fine.”

Nero just looked at him for a minute before reluctantly nodding. Dante gave him a small smile before ruffling his hair and standing up. “Anyway, being around me might help things go faster for you than it did for me. I mean, even discounting the amnesia thing I didn’t really have any real interaction with demonic stuff. I mean, I stabbed demons when they popped up, but that doesn’t really count. You live with me 24/7, so it might speed things up.”

His kid bit his lip, looking extremely unsure. “But… will that make me more demonic?”

Dante sighed. “No. We’ve been through this already. You’ll still be you. Just because you have devil blood and demonic powers doesn’t make you not human. Heck, if that were the case Lady wouldn’t put up with me!”

Despite himself, Nero let out a little snort. “She barely puts up with you now.”

“Lies, she loves me, she’s just too stubborn to show it!”

“Uh huh. Definitely.”

Dante gave him a mock glare. “Anyway, if you’re done with retreading ground we’ve already covered, you want to see my Devil Arms or not?”

“I do!” And just like that, puppy Nero was back. He grinned at him, ruffling his hair yet again before finally opening the door.

Unfortunately, his good mood was almost instantly shattered upon hearing the voices. “Look, brother, the master has finally brought his nestling in to see us!”

“He has! He takes after the master, doesn’t he brother?”

“Yes, you can see the resem-“

“If you two don’t shut up I’m dumping you in the trash when I clean out the fridge again!”

Silence. “Good.”

He glanced over at his son and saw the dumbfounded look on his face. After a moment, the six-year-old exclaimed, “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!”

“First off, language.”

“Fuck you!”

“No thanks, that would be bad.”

Dante snickered at the tiny growl that came out of his son’s throat. Nero just glared at him even more, but he had a long way to go until he seemed in any way threatening to him. “Anyway,” he continued, walking over to pick up two twin swords, “these are Agni and Rudra, fire and wind swords who I would have probably gotten rid of by now if they weren’t actually sort of helpful in battle. To answer your question, no, most of the Devil Arms I have don’t talk, it’s just these two mainly. They don’t know how to shut up.”

He half expected one of them to pipe up, but they stayed silent. Good, that meant the threat was a good one. Wait. Damn it. He actually needed to know something. He groaned. “Shit. Okay, I need one question answered and then you two shut up again or enjoy the smell of rotten food. If I hand a Devil Arm to the kid and maybe let him use one, would any of you automatically challenge him?”

“No, we would be happy to protect master’s nestling free of charge!”

“The only way we would challenge him is if you decided to have us challenge him to consider him our master instead of you!”

“…So, you won’t?”

“We will not!”

“Okay. Good. Now shut up.”

When he was assured that they weren’t going to say anything else, he sighed in relief and tried to hand the twin swords to Nero, who just eyed them before asking. “Seriously, what the hell was all that? Why did they call me a nestling? Is that some weird demon thing?”

“First off, again, those were Agni and Rudra. Again, getting them to shut up is a chore. If they weren’t half as useful in battle I wouldn’t even bother with them,” Dante shrugged, finally getting his son to take the swords to examine. “As for the ‘nestling’ thing, it’s apparently what devils call kids. Or people that aren’t actually kids, a couple have tried to call me that. Not sure if they’re trying to insult me or they actually think I’m a kid because devils tend to live longer than humans.”

“Oh. Anyway, so what do they do?”

“Kill stuff.”

Nero glared at him. “I mean, what do they do? What’s the point of using them?”

“They’re fire and wind elemental. Actually pretty helpful once you get them to quit talking.”

“Huh. Cool.” Nero handed the twin swords back to him and wandered around the closet to get a closer eye at the others. “How did you get so many- why the hell is there a demon guitar here.”

Dante snickered, putting Agni and Rudra back on the shelf before walking over and picking up said demonic guitar. “This, kid, is Nevan. She was a succubus that had really great taste and picked a guitar to turn into when I defeated her. She can summon bats and turn into a scythe,” he said, stepping back and demonstrating the latter.

Nero stared at the Devil Arm with wide eyes. “Can I have her please?” he begged.

“No.” Dante did not need to think twice about that. No way on earth or hell would he let his six-year-old son anywhere near a succubus. Hell, he probably wouldn’t let him near one even if he was ten years older, though judging how the kid acted now he probably wouldn’t be able to stop him. Eh, he’ll figure it out if it ever comes to that.

“Why not? It’s a demonic guitar! What else could I want?”

“Yeah, she’s awesome and I know that, but you’re still not challenging her.”

“Yet.”

“Kid, you’re not going up against a succubus. I’ll be happy to let you use her if you want, but you are not going to try to challenge her.”

“Why? What’s a succubus?”

Oh hell no. He was _not_ going to have this conversation with his son anytime soon. “Let’s just say it’s a type of devil and leave it at that for now.”

“Tell me!”

“Not until you’re older.”

“I’ll just ask Lady when she shows back up!”

“I doubt she’ll give you a better answer.” Lady was a lot of things, but he sincerely doubted that she wanted to give The Talk to a six-year-old and deal with all that. Then again, she may tell him just enough that’d he’d go ask him for more detail just so she could watch him flounder. Though she’d probably still wait another couple years for that, six was a little bit too early.

“Just tell me!”

“I said I would later. That’s final.”

“You’re just dodging the subject! I want to know now!”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“No!”

“Still no!”

Nero scowled while Dante laughed. “Please, I know that trick too well, you’re not going to win this!”

Before either of them could say anything more, they heard the door open and a familiar voice call out, “Where are you idiots? I know you’re here!”

Nero immediately shot out of the closet. Moments later, he heard him ask, “Lady, what’s a succubus?”

Snickering upon hearing Lady sputter, he replaced Nevan on the wall and walked out of the closet, making sure to go ahead and replenish the ward before he forgot.

The moment he walked into the main room, Lady’s head turned to him, a fierce glare on her face. “Why is Nero asking me what a succubus is?”

“I was showing him my Devil Arms before you walked in and rudely interrupted. Anyway, what do you need babe?  Tired of staying away from this handsome specimen?” he goaded her, his usual smirk on his face.

Lady just scoffed at him. “Please. I haven’t fallen that far. No, I was just wandering around and saw that some of the schools were starting registration soon.”

“And why should I care about that?”

He just received one of her patented you-are-an-absolute-moron looks. “You should care because you have a kid that needs to go to school so maybe he doesn’t turn out to be a complete moron like you.”

“What?” both father and son yelped.

“Why the hell does he need to go there?” Dante continued as Nero crept closer to him and clutched onto one of his legs.

Lady rolled her eyes. “It’s the law idiot. Do you really want to get investigated because you don’t educate your son and get him to school?”

She may have a bit of a point there, but she couldn’t feel Nero’s sheer terror at the idea as he buried his head into the fabric of his pants, couldn’t feel him shake against him in fear. “And why can’t I just homeschool him? Loads of people do that!”

“With how horrible and quite frankly despair inducing your math and science is?”

“Hey, most of the math they teach has no actual practical value, and science is broken and makes no sense!”

“…I’ll give you the math, but you don’t get an opinion on the science, you break physics for fun!”

Dante just barely kept himself from full out growling at her. Realizing that this line of protests wasn’t working, he changed tactics. “And how the hell am I supposed to cover up things like the lack of doctor’s visits or whatever the hell else they’re going to force me to give them?”

Lady blinked in surprised before a furious expression crossed her face. “You haven’t taken him to a doctor yet? What the hell is wr-“

“What do you think it’d look like if I did?” Dante ruthlessly cut her off, taking a perverse pleasure in watching her reel back. “Sure, I don’t give a damn about all the rumors that pop up about me, but do you actually think I’m stupid enough to let anyone get ahold of anything they can use against us?”

The brunette stepped back, shaking her head, remorse written on her face. “Sorry. I just assumed. I’ve had… bad experiences with people not going to see someone, let’s put it that way.” He quickly made a note to see if that was one of the things he could bug her about before he was distracted by her continuing, “But you can forge anything you need. You’re decent enough at it yourself and I know some people.”

It took way too much effort to stop himself from snarling at her. “Why are you so determined he goes to school anyway?” he asked, placing his arm around his son in an attempt to comfort him as the shaking increased.

Lady hesitated, an uncertain expression crossing her face. After a minute, she sighed and admitted, “I care, okay? He deserves a good childhood and I hated school itself, but still liked going because I got to see my friends. I just… I want him to be happy, okay?”

Well. Confirmation that Lady had a heart was always a good thing. But he had serious doubts that Nero would agree with her on this given everything he knew had happened to him before he found him.

Doubts that were confirmed when Nero finally muttered, “They’ll all just hate me though. Everyone at the orphanage did. They’ll all just think I’m too weird and hate me.”

Dante should have known that Nero’s insecurities wouldn’t have gone away yet. He’d seemed okay lately, but a month wasn’t long enough to get rid of them entirely it seemed. As soon as the last broken sounding word had left his son’s lips, he managed to dislodge him just enough to kneel in front of him and hold his shaking form to him. There weren’t any tears yet, but a couple more minutes would probably change that.

The half devil looked up when he heard Lady step closer to them, seeing echoes of the same emotions he felt written on her face. She sighed before kneeling only a couple feet away from them. “Not everyone will hate you for being different,” she said in a soft tone he hadn’t realized she could possess. “Sure, some kids made fun of how my eyes were different colors, but there were others that didn’t care or who actually thought they were cool. Not everyone’s going to dislike you just for being different.”

Nero sniffed against his dad’s chest before turning his head to glance at her. “Really?” he asked, sounding like he barely believed her.

“Yep. How about this: you go to school at least until December, and if you hate it, we’ll figure something out and pull you from school. That sound okay?”

The six-year-old was still extremely hesitant, Dante could tell, but after a minute he reluctantly nodded in agreement.

Lady smiled at him, ruffling his hair, before looking directly at the half devil holding onto him. “Look’s like it’s two against one here.”

Dante rolled his eyes. “Technically-“

“Since when do you care about technicalities?”

He scowled. “Fine. Just give me the details for the stupid place and I’ll figure out the money situation because there’s no way school is free, the liars.”

Land smirked at him. “Sure. I’ll even bring something over for dinner.”

“Pizza?” “Chinese?”

The brunette just gave them both a deadpan stare. “Seriously, if anyone had doubts you were related, your guy’s fanatical devotion to a certain food would dispel them. No, I’m getting Mexican because I damn well feel like it and I’m paying so you two get to deal with it!” With that, she all but stalked out of the shop.

Both part devils stared at the door for a minute before Dante let out a sigh and looked back to his son. “You sure about the school thing? “

Nero hesitatingly nodded. “I can’t… I can’t avoid it, can I? Lady’d make me do something else even if I said no.”

The devil hunter grimaced. It was true, Lady was great at bullying people into stuff. There’s a reason he let her sort out their pay for joint missions after all. Still… “She would, but anything would be smaller and probably nowhere near as overwhelming.”

His kid bit his lip but still said he would and Dante decided not to press him anymore. According to Lady it’d be a couple weeks before they had to register him anyway, plenty of time for him to back out if he wanted.

“What’s school like anyway?” Nero finally asked after a minute.

Dante just shrugged at him. “Dunno, never went, ask Lady for details.”

“You never did?”

“Hard to when you’re on the run and then pretty much living on the streets,” the half devil replied, forcing his voice to stay level. It was a bit of a sore subject for him; he didn’t necessarily regret not having gone to school itself, but the idea of what it meant…

He caught a glance at Nero’s guilt-ridden face and force himself to try and bring some levity to the conversation. “Hey, it wasn’t really bad, there was a great free public library I could go to and I didn’t have to learn anything stupid I’d never use. Besides, mom realized early on if she gave Verge and I something to learn it kept us out of her hair for a bit and we didn’t usually fight. With fists or other weapons at least, she gave up on making us quit messing with each other with words.”

“…So, is you learning stuff on your own the reason you’re a dumbass?”

“Okay, that’s it, you’re going to get it now!”

Nero squealed and dodged as Dante lunged at him, both father and son laughing as they play fought around the ground floor, moods lifted for the moment, neither one becoming the victor before Lady came back with food and sighed at their antics.

* * *

 

Lady sighed again as she watched the two part devils demolish the food she’d brought them. There was a reason she didn’t buy for them often, they could out-eat entire armies if they felt like it and suffer no ill effects. If there was one even slightly decent motivation to become a devil, being able to eat whatever you wanted and never have to watch your figure would be it. Oh, and the ridiculous healing. That was another half decent reason. She sometimes wondered if Dante would have died long before she met him if he didn’t have it or if he’d have actually learned how to dodge.

And now they were bickering over the last taco. Said bickering stopped when Nero got close enough to lick it and caused Dante to whine over it. Seriously, it was so hard to figure out which one of them was the kid sometimes…

Once Nero had gone up to take a shower and the empty boxes thrown into the trash, Dante finally broke the silence and said, “You sure care an awful lot about the kid.”

“He’s a cute kid,” Lady shrugged, settling down on the couch.

“Yeah, but so are a lot of other kids, even if Nero’s better because of my superior genetics.”

She knew what he was doing, trying to goad her into admitting that Nero was probably the closest she’d get to having a kid of her own, even if she was probably closer to something like the vodka aunt or whatever that position was called. She refused to give him the satisfaction even though she had all but outright said it earlier.

Instead, she changed the subject and asked, “Was his life that hard at the orphanage you found him in?”

Dante scowled. “I didn’t actually see any of it, but he didn’t want to say goodbye to anyone when we left and I barely had to convince him to go with me, he was just desperate for _someone_ to like him.”

“Why didn’t they like him? He’s just a sweet kid!”

Her fellow devil hunter stared at her for a moment before he sighed in defeat and looked away. “He’s part devil. Kids that young seem to pick up on that stuff easier than adults. Think that’s part of the reason my parents didn’t really try and find playmates for Verge and I, they didn’t want us to face that kind of rejection that early.”

All Lady could do was stare at him, irrational guilt rising up and threatening to take over. She’d accepted that he was half devil, but it’d taken her months to really get comfortable with the fact, and it took them having a fight over him sparing a benign devil for him to even sort of admit how much she hurt him by how she’d treated him for something he couldn’t help. If he had felt that bad over someone he considered a friend treating him that way when he was an adult, how horrible would a little kid have felt being treated badly by kids when he was that young?

“…Am I making a mistake, making him go to school?” she asked in a small voice.

Dante shrugged. “Can’t tell. Hopefully not, most of the kids should be growing out of that sort of sensitivity by now.”

“Why would they grow out of it?”

“People telling them it’s not real, some sort of bull like that I guess. People are good at making themselves blind to the truth and dragging others down with them to vindicate themselves.”

He really wasn’t wrong. She’d always wondered if even a few people had taken what Arkham had been researching seriously instead of thinking he was just eccentric…

Forcing herself from those thoughts, she snorted. “One way of putting it for sure.”

Dante looked like he was going to say something more, but instead just grabbed a magazine and started flipping through it. Ah. He must have heard the water go off and didn’t want Nero to hear them.

Changing the subject, Lady mentioned, “There’s a high paying job I heard about, destroying a nest the next town over. Sounds kind of annoying, but shouldn’t take more than a couple hours to take care of.”

“And?” the half devil asked, not glancing up from the article he was reading.

“If you want it, you can have it. It’ll pay for Nero’s schooling and probably a bit more. I’ll pop by tomorrow and give you the details and you can go this week.”

She barely kept a smirk off her face at the shocked look she got from her friend. Catching him completely off guard was always satisfying because it happened so rarely.

Just as he was about to open his mouth, probably to ask something stupid like who she was and what she had done with Lady, Nero came bounding down the stairs and demanded his dad to show him more of his Devil Arms.

Lady snorted at Dante’s reply that she probably wouldn’t appreciate being ignored and got up. “Please, being ignored is impossible with you. Anyway, I got a job to get to, so I’ll leave you kids be.”

“I’m not a kid!”

Nice, both of them protested this time. She just laughed at them as she went out the door to her waiting bike, mood lifted for the first time in a week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Glares at chapter* You wouldn't believe how annoying this chapter was to write. It just didn't want to come together at all, which is why it's a bit shorter than usual because I just gave up trying to add more.
> 
> Anyway, sorry for only having Nero see two of the Devil Arms, but I couldn't think of enough good ideas for the others. They might show up later on though, so don't count them out. I mean, Nevan at least will definitely pop up because she's really cool and deserves more love, so it's always possible.
> 
> *Hands Lady an award that says "Proof Lady has a heart* Seriously, can we stop demonizing her yet? She's cool and not just a jerk!
> 
> Anyway, next chapter should be a lot smoother and have more of a plot. I mean, I get to write Dante interacting with normal people, that's always fun >:)
> 
> By the way, would you guys be interested in me making this a series? I mean I have ideas for mini sequels whenever this ends and depending on what 5 brings us (though I may just make this more of an au than originally thought if I decide to stick with my original ideas), but would you be interested in like aus of an au? Like I've been thinking of writing what it would be like if Eva, Sparda, and Vergil were around and got to meet their grandkid/nephew in this au, and I have another couple ideas for one-shots that aren't canon to this verse, but what do you guys think?


	8. New Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero sort of but not really gets in trouble at school and makes friends, meaning poor Dante has to deal with normal parents. He wasn’t ready, especially for the shock of them not caring about certain things.

Dante groaned, flopping on the couch after dragging himself out of the shower, not even bothering to run a towel through his hair. He really hated days like this, having to go out late to kill some demons and only managing to get a couple hours of sleep before Nero dragged him out of bed to walk him to school before almost immediately getting another call that of course couldn’t be put off until later. Seriously, if he hadn’t needed the money to keep his kid happy he would have told that last customer where to stuff it.

Not that he was complaining about getting up to see Nero off to school, the kid always seemed calmer when he did. He’d been a nervous wreck that first morning, barely even saying anything to either him or Lady as he got ready (who he swore had only shown up to laugh at them). They had met the teacher a couple days before- Mrs. Hinkley was a genuinely nice person, to the point that if the devil hunter hadn’t been as good at reading people as he was he would’ve thought she was fake- but that had never been what his son was worried about.

Thankfully, after an excruciating day of sitting around and waiting for his son to get off school (he had _not_ been sitting there moping, Lady was a liar), he’d picked him up and found that Nero was in a better mood. He hadn’t really made any friends yet- not that he’d expected him to, no one in his family was amazing at that even if it wasn’t as noticeable with anyone that wasn’t Vergil, who had had a bad habit of growling at people, or Sparda, who had regularly forgot how to human- but he seemed to at least been getting along with the other kids. Granted, getting Nero to talk about everything was almost like- well, not pulling teeth, that would probably be easy with his strength, so maybe like not eating any pizza that wasn’t tarnished with pineapple- but at this point he could read him well enough to know that nothing bad was happening.

Anyway, they’d started a routine. Dante would force Nero into bed sometime after nine provided he hadn’t gotten an urgent call, and then he himself would sit at his desk for another couple hours before going to bed sometime around midnight. Nero tended to wake himself up with an alarm clock that Dante tended to sleep through and took a shower before forcing his dad out of bed for breakfast. Dante walked him to school or drove him if it was pouring out before he went back home and sleept for another couple hours before eating lunch. He then proceeded to sit around all afternoon before going and picking the kid up when school ended.

It was weird, not having the kid around all the time after two months of him always being there, but he’d gotten used to it the last two weeks, and seeing the kid loosen up a bit day by day was worth it in his opinion. He was half expecting for things to crash down around them, but hopefully-

The phone rang, cutting into his thoughts. Dante groaned, seriously debating about not answering it, but eventually managed to drag himself up and slammed a fist on the desk, catching the phone as it jumped in the air. “Devil May Cry.”

A moment of silence, and then a confused voice asked, “Dante Williams?”

Forcing himself not to groan because if someone used his full name it tended to lead to massive annoyances, said man replied, “The one and only.”

“Oh. Well. I’m calling about your son Nero, there was an altercation earlier during lunch.”

“…What kind of altercation?” If someone had been picking on his son, so help him…

“Apparently he and another couple children got in a fight with another child.”

The half devil raised an eyebrow. Sure, he could buy his kid getting into a fight, he had a hard time keeping his temper in check, but something about this seemed off. “What was this fight about?”

“I don’t know, I was told to call you and ask you to come up to the school.”

Dante frowned, but told her that he’d be up there soon, hanging up the phone and heading upstairs to get dressed, wondering what had happened all the while.

He decided to forgo his usual coat since he needed to clean it later, making sure his guns were safely hidden in his “pockets.” He snickered, wondering when Nero would finally crack and ask him where he stuffed them when he didn’t wear his holsters.

Twenty minutes and a couple of idiots walking in the middle of the road that forced him to slow down later, he pulled into the school and headed inside, being ushered into the principal’s office as soon as he walked in.

Nero was fine, not a scratch on him to be seen, and judging by his scent he hadn’t been hurt at all. Dante breathed a sigh of relief, he didn’t want to know what he would do if he had been hurt. The kid briefly looked over at him before looking down, scowl on his face but body language tense and making him think he was just waiting for a lecture from him. The kid should know by now he doesn’t do lectures. At most he’d tell him not to do it again. How many lectures had he gotten from that damned orphanage to completely forget that?

The two kids next to him- twins more than likely from their scent, forcing the devil hunter to swallow the lump in his throat that appeared every single time he saw another pair- were in worse condition. The boy was holding an icepack to an eye while the girl had bandages wrapped around her nose, and both of them had other bruises forming on their arms. Their mother was eyeing both of them worriedly and didn’t even glance at him when he walked in.

The other kid, probably the one that caused the injuries, was sitting on the opposite wall, holding his right arm in an exaggerated way that would hurt the arm even more if it was actually hurt. He was flanked by his parents, both of whom were glaring at him. He raised an eyebrow, wondering why they looked somewhat familiar.

“Mr. Williams?” Principal Taylor asked.

“Just Dante,” he told her, taking a seat next to his son, who still didn’t look over at him. “What happened here?”

Before the principal could even open her mouth to reply, one of the parents glaring at him cut in, “My son was being bullied by those two hellions and your spawn went and attacked him!”

“Mr. Thompson, that was uncalled for!” the principal snapped at the man.

Now Dante remembered why they seemed familiar. A few months ago, he and Lady had taken out a nest that had gotten into their cabin outside of the city. Absolutely none of the damage had been done by the duo for once, but the two had tried to refuse payment because of it. Lady had threatened them with Kalina Ann and made them cough up the money, but apparently they still held a grudge even though he’d actually tried talking his friend out of threatening them with a bazooka.

The half devil just raised an eyebrow. “Please. Your kid doesn’t have a scratch on him. Even if his arm was screwed up, he wouldn’t be holding it like that, believe me.”

“You-“

“Quiet!” the principal finally cut in, glaring at both of them, but most of the venom was directed at the Thompsons. She sighed and started, “From what eyewitnesses have said, John was taunting Ryan and Lyn. I do not know exactly what they were talking about, but eventually John hit Ryan and gave him a black eye, hitting Lyn when she tried to stop him. They were attacked a few more times before Nero rushed in and grabbed John’s arm to try and keep him from hurting them more. Teachers were able to break them apart at that point, and you were called while the nurse was looking over everyone.”

“Obviously our John was provoked! He had every reason to attack those two hellions-“

“And give them a black eye and bloody nose?” Dante cut the father off, honestly disgusted that they were defending those actions. He doubted that Nero would ever do this, but if he did he sure as hell wouldn’t be defending him, and he definitely wouldn’t be calling kids names while doing it. “Come on, do you really expect us to believe that, especially with your class act of calling little kids names?”

The mother glared at him even more. “It’s no better than your spr-son bruising my son’s arms!”

Before he could reply, the principal cut in again, saying, “Your son has no bruising or injury at all. Nurse Carol has assured me of that. Your son was the aggressor here. He’s suspended for the next three days and will have detention for the five days after he comes back.”

“You can’t-“

“I can and am. I suggest you take your son home before I am forced to take action against you.”

The parents looked about to argue, but the principal’s hand reaching for the phone made them think better of that. They swept from the room, giving everyone a glare as they stalked out.

The moment the door shut behind them, the principal retracted her hand with a sigh. “I apologize for all of this,” she told them, looking between the two adults left in the room. “I’m sending all three of you home since school will be letting out in a couple hours anyway. Mrs. Johnson, if either of your twins need to stay home from school because of their injuries, everything will be taken care of and they can make up anything they miss for as long as it takes them to heal.”

The woman nodded. “Thank you.” She turned to the two part devils and smiled at them. “Thank both of you as well.”

Dante raised an eyebrow again. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You didn’t assume the worst of my children, that’s more than enough. And you, Nero, you tried to protect them from getting hurt any more. And you did it without harming the other child.”

Dante grinned, reaching out to ruffle his son’s hair. “Yep, that was great,” he said, more than a little amount of pride in his voice. Nero looked up at him in surprise, but quickly turned red and turned his head away, scratching his nose with his hand.

Mrs. Johnson just smiled at them. “I’d like to invite the both of you to dinner to show my thanks.”

“You really don’t-“

“I know, but I want to.” She quickly took out a sheet of paper and scribbled something on it. “Our address. Is six-o-clock fine?”

“I guess, but you really-“

“I’ll see you two then!” the woman smiled, ushering her children out the door before they could try to protest again.

The two part devils stared at the shut door for a minute before the principal snorted. “It seems like she’s determined your son makes friends with her children,” she smirked.

“…That’s what that was about?” Dante asked incredulously.

“More than likely. By the way Mr. W- Dante, thank you for the wards.”

The devil hunter immediately tensed. “What do you mean?” he asked calmly, acting like he had no idea about any wards he may or may not have set up around the school to protect his son and the other kids.

She just smirked at him. “My mother dabbled in the arcane arts. I never truly got into them myself, but I can recognize wards when I see them. With how often demons and other unsavory creatures are found in this city, I’ve often thought of asking someone to cast wards to protect the children, but kept putting it off because there never seemed to be a need. I’d offer you money for it if I thought you’d take any.”

“I won’t, you’re right,” Dante murmured, starting at her with narrowed eyes. It wasn’t that she had some connections to arcane stuff- he’d be a hypocrite if he had a problem with that- but given how there were already rumors floating around about what he was… he personally didn’t care if people knew what he was or not, but the fact that she was his son’s principal and someone that seemed to have some sensitivity…

She must have guessed at his thoughts, because her smirk faded into a small smile. “You do good work for this city, Dante, and I’d be a fool to care about anything else.”

He relaxed a bit at that. A tactic acknowledgement that she knew or at least guessed, but also showing that she didn’t care. Good, he admired people like that, ones that looked at what someone did rather than was. “Thanks, my ego can always use a boost,” he smirked, standing up and pushing his son out of his seat. “Thanks for not listening to those as- jerks.”

“It’s my job.”

_Glad you’re actually doing it,_ he thought, but didn’t say anything more as he led his son out the door.

Neither of them said anything until they got out of the school and were walking to the car. “You’re not mad?” Nero finally broke the silence to ask.

Dante just looked down at him. “Kid, why would I be mad? You didn’t start it, hell, you didn’t even hurt the kid and you were trying to protect those kids. Seriously, why would I get mad about that?”

Nero just looked down at the pavement. The half devil just sighed, stopping and using a hand to force his son to look at him. “Honestly? I’m proud of you. You’re already starting the proper family tradition of protecting people, even if you are a tiny runt.”

The six-year-old just turned bright red, whether mostly from embarrassment or anger he couldn’t tell. “I’m not a runt! I’m one of the taller kids in my class! You’re just freakishly tall!”

Dante laughed, unlocking the car and getting in. “You hungry? You said school food made you want to vomit when they had that spaghetti.”

“That’s because there’s no way that shit was spaghetti! Not really, they actually had decent chicken this time.” After a few minutes, he asked, “Are we going over to that lady’s house?”

The devil hunter glanced at his son from the corner of his eyes. “You want to?”

Nero was silent for a moment. “Lyn’s in my class. She’s nice.”

Dante barely kept himself from teasing his son about liking her. Six was probably a little too young for that, maybe in another few years. Or almost seven actually; he needed to finish his present before his birthday came in just over a week. “I guess we’ll go then,” he decided, holding back a sigh. He didn’t really want to; who knows what that woman would ask. He didn’t want any judgement about his parenting, and he was unfortunately slightly too cynical to truly hope for the best. Too many years of seeing the horrible things people can do. There were amazing people out there and he wished he was still in touch with some of them, but he was still skeptical of the average person.

(Sometimes he despised himself for feeling that way. It made him feel too much like Vergil had been at the end, and he never wanted to be like him.)

* * *

 

Thankfully, Mrs. Johnson- or Aneta as she insisted on them calling her- did turn out to be a genuinely nice person. Mr. Johnson wasn’t anywhere to be found outside of pictures on the mantle and he didn’t ask for details, but they did have a light but lively dinner with her and her two children. It hurt a little bit, seeing the two twins bicker over dinner and be reminded of what his life had been like before everything had gone to hell, but Nero was having fun actually talking with people his age that liked him, so it wasn’t difficult to ignore that feeling.

The kids did unsurprisingly ask him where the white hair came from. Dante had just grinned and said it was a trait from his dear old dad. (Speaking of which, how did he get his hair from him, or anything really? Do devils have DNA? …Probably best not to think about it to hard.) They’d asked him for pictures as proof, but he’d brushed them off and said he didn’t have any of him before masterfully changing the subject. (A lie. He did have a picture of his family they’d taken before Sparda disappeared, but he kept that hidden and hardly ever took it out. Only when everything got to be too much and he was scared of losing the few good memories he had did he look at it. He also knew where their house was and that probably had more, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready to face that place.)

Once they had ate their fill of the delicious chicken and mashed potatoes Aneta had made, the two kids had tried dragging Nero off to play some board game with them. Dante had just waved them off when his kid tried to protest, a smirk on his face. Nero had glared at him, but allowed himself to be dragged off all the same.

“I want to thank you,” Aneta said after they had been gone for a minute.

Dante just stared at her in confusion, an eyebrow raised. “I told you before, I didn’t do anything. And I’m not going to complain about the free food, but this really wasn’t necessary either.”

She shook her head. “It was. As you may have noticed, my husband isn’t here anymore. He passed five years ago.”

The devil hunter had a bad feeling about where this was going. He took a sip of his drink and stayed silent. Saying stupid thinks like “I’m sorry” never helped, he knew that from his own experiences.

Aneta didn’t wait for him to say anything however. “It was late at night. He’d been stuck working overtime and had to go in early the next morning, so he was going to stay at a friend’s house so as to not disturb us. The twins were coming off a bad cold and needed their sleep. Unfortunately, I was disturbed before the sun even started to rise by a call from the hospital. My neighbor wasn’t happy to be woken up so early, but she took the twins when she heard what had happened.

“I got to the hospital, and the cops told me that he’d been caught up in a demon attack. The demon had been abducting people, apparently keeping them alive to feed off their pain. Most of the missing people they found were dead, and only a couple survived even with medical attention.”

Dante swallowed the lump in his throat, looking away from her. He remembered that incident and wished he didn’t. Those men... “You want to thank me for what, getting there too late? Not noticing that devil had been there and kidnapping all those people?” he bitterly asked.

She shook her head. “You got there just in time. Yes, maybe if you had gotten there earlier he would have lived, but some of the ones that they thought had been taken later than him also died, so who knows. I was able to say goodbye to him. That’s what matters to me.”

He kept looking away from her. She was telling him the truth, but he still could scarcely believe her. Why would she want to thank him from something as small as that? He didn’t deserve any sort of thank you for getting there too late. All he deserved was anger.

“You’re not to blame,” Aneta said softly, finally making him glance at her to see the sympathetic look on her face. “If anything is to blame, it’s that demon. Or even the company that made him work that overnight shift, but they gave us a very generous pension so there was some compensation.”

He screwed his eyes shut, attempting to will his face to stay emotionless. A family with twins where the father was killed by demons and mother had to raise them on her own… “Look,” he got out in a forcibly level voice, “grateful or not I don’t need thanks, nor is that any reason to push our kids together.”

“It does show that you’re someone that I don’t mind being around my children, and the events of today have shown that Nero is also someone I definitely do not mind them being friends with.”

Time to change tactics. “Maybe, but you don’t need them hanging out with a devil hunter.”

“Is it really the devil hunting you’re worried about? Or is it because you’re not fully human?”

He flinched. “You…”

“Tyler was awake when you fought the demon, and he told me that you had taken on a demonic form to do it,” her soft voice carried over to him and making Dante finally look back at her, still seeing the same sympathetic look on her face.

He sighed. “My Devil Trigger. I’m only half devil, so this is honestly what I look like, but I can tap into my demonic heritage for a boost in power if needed.” She just nodded. “You don’t care?”

She met his eyes. “I wouldn’t have let you in my house if I did,” she said, and he could see the truth in her eyes.

“And you’ll let your kids be friends with a part devil, and be around his half devil dad?” Her words made him assume that was the case, but he had to be sure.

She gave him a small smile. “Your actions mean more than your heritage ever will, and both of you have proven to me that you are men of character.”

Dante stared at her for a little while longer, having to take the time wrap his head around this. He could tell she was being sincere, but the idea of someone knowing for sure exactly what they were yet not caring and even encouraging them to be around their children… well, saying it was a novel idea would be an understatement, especially since the person was the spouse of someone he’d failed to save. He’d hated his father for not being there when the demons had attacked for the longest time, so why was she so calm about all this? He almost wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to disturb the peace, make her think more about it and decide to take back this peace offering.

He finally shook his head, a small smirk crossing his face. “You’re not the type of person to give up your opinions, are you?”

Aneta smiled at him. “No. So I suggest you quit trying, especially since I have the feeling that our children have bonded.”

Dante snorted. He’d been keeping an ear out and could hear the playful arguments they were having over an Uno game. It was probably too late to keep them apart, especially since kids that age didn’t have much of a problem making at least temporary friends wherever. Well, unless you were Vergil and had a habit of growling at people of course.

“You probably won’t take it, but if you need any advice or help on raising a child, I’m willing to give it.”

Yeah, he wasn’t going to take it, especially since she had no idea about the more demonic instincts from their blood, but he nodded and thanked her anyway.

That was all he got out before he heard an annoyed shout from the bedroom and turned around just in time for Ryan to pop in the door and demand his mom to stop Lyn from cheating. The girl immediately squealed out that she wasn’t, making Nero pipe up that she was, there was no way she could have known her twin had that card.

The five of them ended up playing Monopoly once that argument ran it’s course, which went… interesting. Maybe making five pretty competitive people play that particular game wasn’t a good idea. Well, it didn’t ruin any new friendships and they got a half-invitation half-demand to come visit some other time, so all’s well that ends well he guessed.

“So, your dad had white hair too?”

Dante snorted, looking down at his son as they walked back home. “That’s what you ask about? Noting about the conversation I know you were listening to?”

Nero looked away, rubbing at his nose. “Shut up! Nothing to say is there? She knows and for some stupid reason doesn’t hate us. That’s good I guess.”

He shrugged. He wasn’t wrong, it was a really good thing, if kind of weird because he wasn’t used to it. “You want to tell your two new friends?”

Immediately the kid shook his head, a terrified expression on his face. Dante sighed. “Nero, they won’t care this early, I promise you. They’ll just think it’s cool. I mean, look at your reaction to my Devil Trigger.”

“But you can literally turn into a cool looking devil! I can’t! It’s not the same!”

“The first time Lady saw me in it, she screamed and shot me a ridiculous amount of times with Kalina Ann. Not that I can blame her because I’d forgotten she didn’t know and I’d probably do the same in her shoes, but still. You just thought it was cool, probably because you’re at that age where you think weird is cool. It may not be the same, but I doubt they’ll care all that much.” Silence from the part devil. He sighed again. “Look, either you tell them or I do because they’ll probably figure something out eventually and you won’t have to deal with them being pissed you kept it from them for years.”

“Why do you assume we’ll be friends for long.”

“Hopeful thinking I guess.”

Nero just looked away. “Fine. Later. Now, my actual question?”

Dante would hold him to the later. “Yep, my dad did. Didn’t make it look near as good as I do, but got it from him.”

“Your hair looks stupid. You need to get it cut, it always falls in your face.”

“So does yours.”

“I brush it out of my face at least and I don’t fight demons all the time!”

“Maybe it helps me, ever think of that?”

“How the hell would covering your eyes help fight something?”

“How would you know?”

“You’ve been teaching me how to shoot and it’s easier when you can see the thing!”

“Maybe I’ve developed a system where having my eyes half covered sometimes helps.”

“Bullshit! You’re just too lazy to get a haircut!”

Okay, maybe he should quit taunting the kid because he was starting to figure things out. He had been planning to get a new haircut for a few months, but the last guy he’d gone to moved out of town and he hadn’t gone and looked for another one. Maybe after one last taunt though… “Why, you worried I’ll cramp your style with my hair?”

“You do that by existing.”

“You wound me, I don’t think I’ll ever recover, how could you do this to your poor father?”

Nero just let out a tiny growl and stomped ahead of him, making Dante grin and consider this another win for him.

They somehow managed to get back home without getting attacked by anything for once. Dante kind of wondered how that had happened, but quickly decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and just accept it.

When they walked in, Dante took off his coat and threw it on the back of his desk chair before slowly taking his guns out of his pockets in hopes that Nero would notice and finally ask about it. Didn’t happen though, the kid didn’t even look his way, instead focusing on the picture standing on the desk. “Kid? Nero?”

The six-year-old bit his lip before asking, “Is this my grandma?”

The devil hunter took a deep breath. He really didn’t want to talk about this right now, but his kid probably wouldn’t take no for an answer. Or he might, but it wasn’t fair to him to keep everything in. He deserved to hear about the good parts of his life, not just the bad.

Besides, it was a far easier conversation than the one they’d eventually have to have about how he had no idea who the mother of his kid was. He had ideas, but if he thought about it more he wasn’t sure what he would do. He was already angry enough at that nameless woman for abandoning his kid and not even bothering to call him herself. A name and face would make that anger a thousand times worse, and he didn’t trust himself not to track her down.

“Yeah, that’s my mom,” Dante said softly, taking a couple steps to stand directly behind his kid. “Her name was Eva. Idiots love worshiping my father, but if anyone should be worshiped in my family it’s her. She dealt with a devil and two half breeds for years and didn’t go insane and considering everything we got into I don’t know how she did it.”

Nero stayed silent for a minute, staring at the picture. “Do you have any of you all?”

The half devil took a sharp breath. He didn’t like bringing the picture out, but… “One.”

“Can I see it?”

Instead of answering, Dante knelt down and opened the bottom drawer. He took out a couple stray papers before lifting up the false bottom and took out what was hidden. Taking the wrappings off to reveal the picture, he handed it to his son, trusting him to be gentle with it.

Nero just stared at it for several long moments. “Why are there two of you?”

Dante snorted. “Forgot to tell you Verge and I were identical twins, didn’t I? I’m the handsome one of course.”

“You guys are like four or something in this.”

“And? I can’t have always been handsome?”

He just received an eyeroll. “Seriously, which one are you?”

The half devil just knelt down next to his son. “I’m the one in black on mom’s lap, and Verge is the one in blue on dad’s.” And wasn’t that some foreshadowing, which parents were holding them. “Usually you can tell us apart by which one of us is in red or blue, no idea why I was in black for this.”

Some more staring. “You weren’t wrong about your dad’s hair.”

Dante snorted again. “At least he wasn’t wearing the monocle in that picture.”

“…He wore a fucking _monocle?!?”_

“Unfortunately.”

“Why the hell does anyone worship him?”

“They never met him or spent more than five minutes with him I guess.”

“…Why did your mom marry a guy that wore a monocle?”

He snickered. “You’re really stuck on the monocle, aren’t you?”

“Because it’s stupid!”

“That it is kid. If you ever decide to wear one I’m disowning you.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not a dumbass.”

Dante snickered some more before standing up and ushering Nero to the couch. “I don’t know the full details of how they met, but apparently mom shot him when they first met and apparently that made dad decide he wanted to marry her. Didn’t get many details, but they kept spending time together because they were both hunting demons and I guess he wore her down or something and they got hitched. Wasn’t a shotgun wedding since we were born a couple years later- or well not it wasn’t in the metaphorical sense at least, apparently they had a ceremony with some hunter friends and advertised it because they wanted to beat up demons before the honeymoon, which I can definitely get behind.”

“…What’s a shotgun wedding?”

“Basically means two people get married because the guy got the girl pregnant. Apparently sometimes there’s shotguns involved because the girl’s dad threatens the guy if he doesn’t marry her to protect her honor or some bull like that.”

“Oh.”

More silence followed that. Dante took the time to look at the picture still sitting in Nero’s hands, at how peaceful and happy they looked, Eva holding him gently while you could tell even through a photo that Sparda was using a bit too much force to hold Vergil. Even after two thousand years of being stuck in the human realm that devil didn’t fully get how to be human. He honestly doubted he ever would have even if things hadn’t gone to hell.

“Can you tell me about them?” Nero asked before immediately backtracking and saying, “No, never mind, you probably don’t want to so-“

“Hey,” he cut him off, setting a hand on his shoulder,” I don’t mind. Good to remember the happy memories after all, not just the bad. ‘Sides, you have a right to know about your family.”

Nero bit his lip, but slowly relaxed into him as he started talking about all the shenanigans they got into during those good old days. Dante felt surprisingly little pain as we recounted the memories. Sure, there was some, but it was dulled more than usual. Maybe he should start talking about them more if this was the result.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this week has been something. 
> 
> I did mean for this chapter to be of Nero's first day of school, but let's just say my attempts didn't go well and I scrapped it. Maybe if I can figure out how to rework it I'll put it up as a side story.
> 
> I like the idea of people knowing what Dante is and yet not caring. I mean, he probably doesn't exactly keep it hidden- doesn't advertise it, but that's not the same- but he's still shocked every single time someone just accepts it. I was a little surprised when I decided to give Aneta such a personal connection to him, but I do like where it went. If she'd met him right after her husband died it might have been a different story, but she's had the time to think about it and doesn't blame him at all.
> 
> Writing the two of them bicker over stupid things is one of the funnest things about this fic.
> 
> I'm a firm believer that Sparda deserves to be made fun of because of his wardrobe choices. Seriously, a monocle? And you wonder why half the fandom likes to imagine him as a disaster that barely knows how to pretend to be human.  
> I'm also a firm believer in Eva and Sparda meeting and she shooting him in the head. The mental image is glorious, and let's face it that wouldn't exactly make a devil not interested in her.
> 
> Anyway, next chapter may or may not have a timeskip in the middle, just warning you. It all depends on how long certain events get.
> 
> I do have a question though: do you guys want a Christmas chapter in September, or do you want me to release it as a side story in December? I'm good either way, though if I waited to post it it'd let me get to an event I'm looking forward to writing earlier. There's going to be a Thanksgiving one in a couple chapters regardless though, I have to get the adorable family fluff in somehow.
> 
> Also, I am going to do AU of an AU side stories! I'm already starting an everyone is alive short story and I got to say confusing Vergil and making him even more done with life is fun :3


	9. Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante entertains some kids, and Nero has his first real birthday.

Dante sighed as he felt his son and a couple more people go through the wards. Figuring that it was probably his new friends and that he should probably get up and make sure that they didn’t get into any demonic stuff, he reluctantly closed his book, glad that he wasn’t in the middle of a really good part, before stretching and meandering downstairs.

He barely had enough time to see that yes, it was those two kids Nero had made friends with, and to catch his son’s somewhat guilty and apologetic look before the girl squealed, “You can turn into a demon?”

The half devil blinked. That was definitely not what he expected. He eyed the two kids, noting that they looked better than they had a few days ago when he’d last seen them. Lyn did still have some tape on her nose and Ryan’s eye was still badly bruised, but overall much better than before. “…What are you two doing here?” he finally asked, ignoring Lyn’s question in favor of figuring out a more pressing matter. “Does your mom know you’re here?” He’d thought that his kid was going over to their house today, not the other way around.

“Mom took someone to the doctor’s. Now answer my question!”

Dante just blinked again. “Uh… devil, but yes?” he practically asked in his confusion, glancing over at his son for answers.

Nero just looked down at the floor, cheeks slightly pink. “It slipped out,” he mumbled.

The devil hunter was about to ask what that meant, but was quickly distracted when he saw Ryan about to grab Rebellion from where she was leaning against the desk, immediately dashing over to intercept him. “Don’t touch anything,” he demanded, looking both of the newcomers in the eyes, suddenly thankful he’d taken his guns up to his room with him. “Who knows what some of this stuff would do to you since you’re fully human.”

That just made the kid look at him with wide eyes. Er, well, eye. “So you are half demon?”

Dante sighed. “Half devil, but yes.”

“Cool,” Ryan breathed.

More wide-eyed staring from both of the siblings while Nero just kept looking down at the floor, completely embarrassed. The only adult in the room shifted his weight, starting to get uncomfortable with all the continued staring. The resigned attitude Nero had along with the embarrassment made him think he’d borne the brunt of their staring (for lack of a better term) before they’d come here. He idly wondered how the whole devil blood thing came out, he’d thought Nero would put it off as long as possible, but he could wait until after they left to grill his kid about it.

After a couple minutes of staring, he finally sighed and said, “Look, just don’t get into anything, I’m perfectly willing to throw you two under the bus to your mom if you get hurt, I’ll order a few pizzas in a little bit for dinner, and none of you answer the phone, and yes that includes you Nero.”

“What did I do?”

“You cost me a decent job because you kept snarking at the customer.”

“They wanted help for a bunch of Hell Prides! They should’ve done it themselves!”

“Probably, but still not a good idea to flat out mock them over the phone, save that for later when you see them.” Dante snickered at the pout his kid gave him before turning around and heading back towards the stairs. “You kids need anything, I’ll be upstai-“

“Can we see your demon form?”

The devil hunter paused to stare back at the girl incredulously. “…Why?”

“Because I want you to. Or are you too chicken?”

His eye twitched. He knew exactly what she was doing, but it was still unfortunately working. Why was he so gullible… well, Lady thought he just had a soft spot for kids, but he’d rather assume it was the former. …Actually, gullible sounded worse, what was he thinking?

Forcing down a growl because they probably wouldn’t realize it was only directed at himself, he finally triggered in a burst of red light, immediately surveying the two newcomers to make sure that it wasn’t too much for them.

Turns out his assumption when Nero had first seen it was right, six-year-olds did like the weird, because the two of them were staring at them in awe. Neither of them were getting any closer, but he hadn’t expected them to, full humans always did seem to be reluctant to get close to demonic stuff. He'd always assumed that full humans had some sort of sixth sense that they never really acknowledge.

That wasn’t true for Nero though, of course. Dante could already hear him move to attack him easily in normal form, and in Devil Trigger it was just about as easy as breathing. He didn’t do anything about it though, it was fun playing with someone that wasn’t terrified or wary of him when he was like this, and the fact that it was his own kid made it even better. He just let the part devil lunge at him after getting a running start and rolled with the blow, letting himself be knocked down. Nero probably realized he was humoring him, especially since the last time he had only let himself stumble because he really didn’t want to deal with a broken wing again, but he never let on, especially with how competitive he could get.

After a moment, he wiggled a tiny bit to try and make him get up, making sure not to use any real force. If there was one good thing about all of this, it was definitely helping him get more and more control over his devil form, what with how much his kid begged him to play with him in it. “Nero, could you let me up?” he sort of whined. Whining didn’t quite work in this form (or at least he didn’t think so) but hey, if it made them less scared.

“Nope! Hey, can you two come help me hold him down?”

Dante’s eyes widened when he heard Lyn rush over and jump on his back, making him let out a sharp breath from the shock, her brother following after a couple moments. Sure, he hadn’t been shocked when his own kid had bugged him to play with him while triggered, he and Verge had had fun messing with their dad in his true form after all, but two regular kids enjoying keeping him pushed down despite him very weakly struggling?

He couldn’t help but wonder if Nero had done this on purpose. Sure, he probably didn’t tell them on purpose, but usually he didn’t jump him for no reason even when they were alone. But showing his friends that he had nothing to fear from him, even with how he looked now… He wasn’t ever going to bring it up to him, but he was extremely grateful to him. Not many people were willing to get close to him like this after all.

The half devil managed to keep up his devil form for a few minutes, laughing along with the kids and enjoying playfully chasing them around the main room without any outright fear. Eventually though, he started to feel how drained he was getting, and let go of his Trigger, plopping down on the couch and waving them off when they whined. “Look, it takes a lot of energy to keep my Devil Trigger up, so devil time is over for now.”

“Can’t you just use a-“ Nero started, stopping when he saw the look he sent him.

“Use a what?” Lyn asked. He’d noticed that the girl seemed the more outspoken of the two siblings, Ryan being content to let her lead. At least it helped drive in the differences between him and his own twin, neither of them had been content to let the other lead without an argument at the very least.

Trying to avert their attention, he clapped his hands and asked, “So who wants pizza now?” All three kids nodded eagerly, making him grin and make his way over to the phone to order them. “What do you want?”

“Pepperoni!” “Pineapple!”

Dante, Nero, and Lyn all turned to stare at Ryan incredulously. He blushed and mumbled that pepperoni was fine, he was just kidding. Deciding not to call him out on the lie, the half devil ordered two large pizzas with the works (no olives, though he’d undoubtedly get them anyway) for him and Nero, and a pepperoni for the other two.

Not much happened the rest of the time they were there. They looked at all the weapons on the walls before the food came and Aneta came by to pick the two of them up while they were in the middle of eating, gracefully accepting a couple slices for herself before herding her kids out the door, thanking him profusely for keeping an eye on her kids. He just waved the thanks off, telling her it was fine and to just ask him anytime.

…That was a first. Usually he tried his best to make people want to leave and not come back. Maybe he really did have a soft spot for kids…

The evening passed by as normal after that. The only thing slightly out of the usual was Nero asking him if they could go up to the roof after a few hours of sitting around. Dante had raised an eyebrow at that, but quickly acquiesced. It wasn’t too odd after all, he probably just wanted an excuse for him to fly him around again.

Nero was surprisingly morose the whole time, which was extremely odd, he was usually at least trying not to smile. He didn’t take as much time getting up there as usual, quickly realizing that Nero wasn’t in the mood for it. He immediately de-triggered when his feet hit solid ground again, asking what was wrong.

The part devil was silent for several long moments before finally asking in a small voice, “Why is it so hard to get people to believe you?”

Dante looked down at his son, who buried his head in his chest to avoid his gaze. He sighed, sitting down and making both of them comfortable. “People don’t want to believe what’s right in front of them,” he bluntly said, stroking his hair. “It’d be a lot easier if people actually acknowledged demons exist, but a lot of them would rather stay blind than see what’s right in front of their eyes. At least your friends can be excused by being little kids.”

Nero just snuggled closer to him. “But they thought I was kidding when it slipped out and didn’t believe me until Miss Aneta told them I was. And they kept asking why I just looked human. Why?”

He sighed again. “I don’t know why,” he said truthfully, “I’m not the person you should be asking. I’ve known about demons my whole life. I can’t figure out why people can’t see it until a demon smacks them in the eyes.” He’d thought about asking Lady why they didn’t see it before, but considering his suspicions on how and when she found out, he didn’t want to dredge up those memories just to sate his curiosity.

“You at least have a way to prove it,” his kid mumbled against his chest, barely audible.

Dante immediately lifted his head so he could meet his eyes. “Nero, just because I can prove it with my Trigger doesn’t mean it’s a good idea 99% of the time. Usually it gets people to scream and try to kill me. Besides, if you ask for something to prove it, you probably won’t like what you get.”

Nero averted his eyes, biting his lip. “But why can’t I find out if I can Trigger like you?”

“Nero, I came this close to dying when I was forced to. I don’t want that to happen to you. Maybe it’s inevitable, but I’m not in any hurry to find out if you have to go through that pain. I’d rather figure out if it’ll just happen naturally for someone that doesn’t suppress their devil side for about a decade and then worry about it if you still can’t when you’re older.”

His son still looked a little reluctant, but slowly nodded. Dante had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last time it got brought up, but the fact that he seemed to realize that he had a point should help a little during future conversations.

They sat in silence for a little while longer. He could tell that his son wanted to ask something more, but he couldn’t tell what it was and so just kept quiet until he could get it out.

Finally, Nero mumbled, “You said your dad was over two thousand years old, right?”

Dante closed his eyes. He’d hoped this conversation wouldn’t ever come up, or if it ever did he’d have more of an answer. “If you’re asking me how long we’ll live because we’re part devil, I don’t know,” he said softly. “I wish I knew. I’ve been aging, but I can’t figure out if that’ll slow down or stop, or even if it already has. I know I look older than I did when I first Triggered, which is when you’d think it’d stop, but I don’t know if it’s slowed down since then. I’ve always looked older than I am, so it'll be a few more years before I'm sure one way or the other.”

Nero didn’t answer, just looked down and tried to keep him from seeing his face, but he could still sense all of the emotions he was feeling. He sighed, running a hand gently through his hair in an attempt to calm him. “Don’t let that stop you. Maybe we’ll outlive our friends, but we’ll still have memories of them. Not much of a consolation, but it’s better than not having them at all, believe me.”

The six-year-old scoffed. “You mean that love and lost bull?”

Dante snickered. “’I hold it true, whate’er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; ‘Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.’”

Nero stared at him. “What the hell?”

“Tennyson. I memorized the poem to prove a point one time.”

“Why?”

“Why not? Seriously though, don’t pull away from people just because we may or may not have a longer lifespan than them. I’ve done it before, pulled away from them because of my heritage, and I wish I hadn’t.”

Nero looked down again, biting his lip. “If you could… would you go see them again?”

Dante stared at him. He hadn’t expected anyone to ever ask him that, let alone his own son. He debated about lying, but he didn’t want to start doing that to his son. “I wish I could, but I doubt it’ll ever happen. I’m not going to look for them, they don’t need some screw up barging into their lives.”

“You’re not a screw up! Why the hell do you keep saying that?”

Well. There were a ton of reasons why. But he didn’t want to get into that right now. (Besides, Nero would probably shoot them all down. Maybe it’d help, but he still didn’t want to talk about it.) He settled on sighing, ruffling his hair. “Look, I know what you’re saying and you might have a point, but it’s not going to make me stop feeling this way.”

Nero cocked his head, asking him confused, “Why not?”

Dante closed his eyes again. His son was so innocent. Sure he’d seen some of the bad the world had to offer, but he still thought there was an easy way to stop anything. He wished more than anything that innocence would stay, but with the way the world worked it was inevitable. “Some things just don’t have an easy solution,” he settled on saying before quickly changing the subject. “Hey, do you like apple pie?”

The part devil just blinked at him. “What? Yeah… but what does that have to do with anything?”

Dante just smirked. “You’ll find out soon.”

* * *

 

A couple days later, Nero winced as he heard his alarm go off, reaching over and hitting the snooze button without even bothering to open his eyes. He hated getting up. Weirdly though, it was a lot lighter outside than usual.

He managed to get a few more sweet minutes of sleep before the alarm rang again, finally grumbling and sitting up after slamming the button again. He yawned, sleepily glancing at the clock, eyes immediately widening when he saw the time.

In record time, he sped out of the room, taking the steps two at a time to glare at his dad where he was sitting at the desk. “What the hell did you do to my alarm?!?”

Dante just leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and smirked at him. “Why do you think I did anything?”

“It’s past 11! I was supposed to get up hours ago! You did something with your stupid demonic power crap!”

The devil hunter just snickered at him. “Actually, I did nothing with my ‘stupid demonic power crap,’” he mocked him, “I just quietly went in and changed your alarm because I figured I’d be nice and make you not go to school today.”

Nero really wished his dad didn’t fight giant demons on a daily basis and wasn’t immune to people glaring at him because even with his best attempt he still just sat there smirking at him. “Why the hell would I not want to go to school today?”

Dante’s smirk slipped. “You know what today is, right?”

“Umm… Friday?”

“It’s September 20th.” When he just kept staring at his dad in confusion, he sighed and continued, “It’s your birthday kid.”

Nero just stared at him. “What?” he asked almost inaudibly, not quite comprehending what he was hearing.

Dante frowned, finally moving to sit up and put his feet on the floor. “Nero, it’s your birthday. Figured you didn’t want a big deal to be made of it, but I thought letting you sleep in and not have to go to school would be something you liked. I mean, I sure wouldn’t have minded it.”

He just kept staring at him, trying to wrap his mind around what he was saying. “Why?”

“Because I thought it’d be nice? Did you want to go to school?”

The six- _seven-_ year-old numbly shook his head. He didn’t really want to go to school half the time, even if it wasn’t near as bad as he’d thought it’d be, but… at the orphanage they’d never made any sort of big deal about birthdays. You got a cupcake, that was about it. Not much chance to get much else with the budget apparently, and it’s not like the other kids were going to do anything for him. So why was his dad making such a big deal about it? Well, okay, he really wasn’t making a big deal, he didn’t come give him breakfast in bed or whatever shit people did, but to him…

Nero jumped a little when he felt his dad kneel in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving him a concerned look. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked softly.

He rapidly shook his head. “No! It’s just… no one’s ever really done anything for my birthday…”

He couldn’t bring himself to look back up, too embarrassed to meet the man’s eyes. After a moment, he felt his dad wrap his arms around him and he instinctively clung onto him, just wanting to feel his warmth as much as possible.

After a moment, Dante sighed. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, Nero barely able to hear him, but before he could ask about that, he continued, “Well, it won’t be much, but I thought we’d have brunch, I give you my present, and we spend the afternoon messing around. Apparently there’s been some marionettes sighted around, so if you want we can go take a look-“

“Yes!” Nero exclaimed, pulling back to grin at his dad, practically bouncing on his feet.

The devil hunter just laughed at him. “You really love watching me beat up demons, don’t you?”

“It’s cool! It’d be even cooler if you let me beat up some with you instead of just watching, you know.”

More laughter, before his dad stood up and ruffled his hair. “Not today, but maybe in a couple years,” he teased, heading back to the kitchen. Nero pouted a little bit before following. To be honest, he didn’t mind only being able to watch all that much. His dad was really good at fighting after all, and it was always entertaining to be able to see him fight. He did wonder if he was really that strong since he really only got to see him fight against weak demons, but even if Lady felt the need to call him out on some things he said, she never felt the need to call him out on the actual stories themselves, so maybe he was just that strong.

He followed his dad into the kitchen and watched him start to get the pancake mix out of the cupboard, noting that the kitchen was kind of a mess, flour and other stuff he couldn’t tell what they were covering the counter. “What were you doing earlier?”

“Making pie crust,” he replied, putting everything in a bowl. “You want chocolate chips or blueberries in this?”

“Chocolate. And why didn’t you just buy a pie crust?”

Dante froze, holding the bag of chocolate chips in his hands. After a moment, he tore it and looked back at him. “I am not going to desecrate my mother’s apple pie recipe by buying store bought crust, that would ruin the whole thing,” he said, shaking his head and pouring the chocolate in the bowl before mixing it all.

Nero just blinked. “Wait, you’re making your mom’s recipe?”

“Yep. Don’t do it often because it takes so long, but figured today was a good day to do it. Don’t worry, it’s amazing, even if I’ve never been able to make it as good as she could. I mean, if Lady didn’t already have a soft spot for you, I’d have been able to get her here just from mentioning I was going to make apple pie, so if that’s not a glowing recommendation I don’t know what is.”

Nero stayed silent, rubbing his nose with his hand before managing to catch himself. Thankfully, his dad was focused on making the pancakes and didn’t notice. He liked apple pie, the orphanage had gotten it every once in awhile and it was one of the best things they got, but his dad making him a recipe that his mother used for something as minor as his birthday… “Hey, anyone coming over tonight?”

“Just Lady. Thought about asking your friends, but apparently Aneta is taking them over to their grandparent’s tomorrow so just us three.”

“Oh.” Suddenly, a thought occurred to him and he let out an evil smirk. “So, basically you’re having dinner with your kid and your ex, aren’t you?”

He got the reaction he wanted, Dante chocked and dropped the spoon back in the bowl. “What?!? No! What the hell kid? Lady and I aren’t like that!”

Nero snickered. He knew that, yeah, but it was fun to mess with him. Wait a minute… “Wait, I thought you guys had been together at some point.”

His dad just sighed, taking the time to flip the pancakes before he answered. “No. We weren’t. We’ve ended up in each other’s… _company_ occasionally, but we’ve never actually been together. At one point I thought about it, but it wouldn’t have worked out, so probably the best nothing would happen.”

“Oh.” He stayed silent while watching him make their food. He didn’t think it wouldn’t work out, but he could be wrong, and he was kind of glad he didn’t find out he had a step mom when he’d first arrived. That would have been really awkward. He was content with how things were right now, with just the two of them.

It took awhile and a lot of grumbling from his stomach, but eventually the stack of delicious pancakes was placed right in front of him and he barely took enough time to put his toppings on before digging in. He loved this particular breakfast food so much.

Eventually, they finished, Dante telling him to stay there while he went upstairs. Nero stayed sitting in his chair, swinging his legs and wondering what was going on.

After a couple minutes, he heard his dad come back in and turned around, seeing him holding something behind his back, making him raise an eyebrow.

Dante just grinned at him. “One of my old agents is running a shop that deals with Devil Arms and other supernatural weapons. This isn’t a Devil Arm, but it is made of demonic steel, so I figured it would be a good sword to start with."

With that, he handed the shoddily wrapped sword to him. Nero just stared at it for a couple minutes before carefully grasping the hilt and brushing the wrapping aside to take a closer look at it.

It wasn’t that big of a sword- his dad had been able to hide it behind his back after all- but proportionally it was about as big to him as Rebellion was to his dad. He liked that, he’d always wanted to try and use that sword since he saw it, but even he knew that she was just too big for him, so this sword was definitely welcome. It wasn’t really anything special, no real decorations or elaborate hilt, but he could sense it did have a demonic origin even if it wasn’t a Devil Arm.

He kept staring at the sword for a long time, not even noticing the tears starting to fall until his dad gently wiped them away, giving him a soft smile. The seven-year-old immediately put down his new sword and hugged him, wanting to express his thanks but not able to find the words. His dad did seem to get it though, he just kept smiling and kissed his head, telling him he was glad he liked it.

* * *

 

“For the last time kid, you’re putting too much force in your swing, it’s leaving you wide open.”

“Your face is leaving you wide open dad!”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Nero just growled at him, arms hurting a little bit from all the times he’d had to try out different poses and swings. He wouldn’t ever admit he was getting tired though, they hadn’t seen any marionettes anywhere, nor had they found any other types of demons, so this was about as much action as he would get today. Besides, learning how to use swords was cool.

Dante shook his head and sighed. “I’m not the best teacher. Usually I just use Devil Arms, and apparently one of my demonic powers is the ability to pick one up and be able to use it.”

Nero looked at him, sticking his sword in the ground and leaning on the hilt like he’d seen his dad do all the time. “Really?”

The half devil shrugged. “Seems like it. Can’t think of any other explanation. I mean sure, I wasn’t able to use Rebellion perfectly when I got her, but after a couple lessons with dad it was a completely different story, and using any Devil Arms I get for a couple battles pretty much gives me mastery over them. Could be something to do with the weapons themselves, but at the same time something tells me it’s not.”

“Do you think I have the same thing as you?”

“Maybe, but not sure how to find out right now. About the only one I’m willing to let you try to get mastery over right now is Rebellion, and I don’t want to give her up anytime soon.”

“You don’t trust the others?”

“I do, but I haven’t had them as long, so I’d feel more comfortable if you got one I knew better. Besides, the idiot talking duo said they’d be willing to let you use them with no strings attached and they’re probably not the only ones, so I don’t see the need right now.”

Nero kind of wanted to argue about that some more, but he didn’t have anything to counter that, so he just pouted a bit and demanded his dad teach him some more moves.

They got to the point where Nero was much more comfortable using a sword- he was actually picking it up quicker than he was guns- but all good things had to come to an end, and they had to stop the lessons when they heard the timer go off.

Lady finally showed up just as Dante was about to call her and ask her where she was because she wasn’t going to get a chance of having any pie if she didn’t show up to dinner, apologizing and telling them that she got stuck in traffic from her last job. She got him a music player and some good headphones, which made Dante whine and ask why she didn’t get him such nice things for Christmas, to which she replied that it was shocking that his jukebox still worked and he’d probably break the tiny music player if he had one. Nero just snickered at them, enjoying their usual bickering.

They had Chinese for dinner of course, and it actually wasn’t takeout, Dante had found some good stuff to make at home last time he went to the store, and Nero had to admit that the only thing better than Chinese takeout was homemade Chinese. And that delicious apple pie; there had been a fight between all three of them over who got more pieces.

Once Lady had left for the night, telling Dante to forward her any calls he got as a final birthday gift to him, Nero just curled up in his father’s lap, unable to keep a smile off his face.

Dante just looked down at him with a soft smile, gently brushing his hair out of his face. “Happy Birthday, Nero.”

Nero just curled up even more, hugging his dad tightly. He didn’t say anything, but somehow he knew that he didn’t need to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww, Nero finally gets a birthday!
> 
> More Dante being insecure over his devil form and more kids not really having a problem with it. I find it fun to completely go against his assumptions.
> 
> Speaking of which... Dante, your next scheduled sad fest was next chapter, why do you have to go against it.
> 
> The aging thing... I don't know. I sort of like the idea that they'll live longer than humans, but at the same time it's something I'm not sure I want to get into. I mean, it just leads to angst, but at the same time it's something I can really see happening, so... what do you guys think?
> 
> I didnt expect to address the idea of Dante/Lady in this. Don't worry, there won't be any pairings in this. Sure, I do have a soft spot for that pairing, but it's not something I'm going to put in this. I have other ideas if I want to do that pairing sometime.
> 
> I have the feeling I'm forgetting to mention something, but I can't think of what. I'm writing this before I have to leave for something, and I still need to go over the last part again, so please tell me if there's any major errors.
> 
> Oh! By the way, I made a tumblr! Its wingsofthenight.tumblr.com! Feel free to send me any asks, anon should be open ^^


	10. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero and Lady bond over how stupid Dante can be, and Dante and Nero realize that even though their family may be small, they still have one.

Nero hadn’t expected to see Lady waiting for him when he got out of school that day. Or ever, really; if his dad couldn’t pick him up he just walked home himself.

“Why the hell are you here?” he asked, not even bothering with an actual greeting.

The brunette just raised an eyebrow at him behind her sunglasses. “Your teachers let you get away with that mouth of yours?”

He shrugged. He toned it down a little during class. “What do you want?”

Lady just sighed. “You haven’t seen your dad this morning? …Four months later and that’s _still_ a weird sentence to say.”

“No?” Nero asked, not even really processing her last sentence and eyes widening in terror. He hadn’t thought anything of his dad not being there when he got up, it wasn’t the first time since demons didn’t exactly adhere to any kind of schedule, but if she was asking about him, did that mean she thought something bad had happened to him? What if he had run into something too powerful? His dad was strong, but what if-

“Don’t worry, I doubt anything’s happened to him, he’s an idiot, but he’s worse than a cockroach and won’t die easily.” The part devil was able to relax at her assurances, but tensed up again when she continued, “Nah, he just left a note for me, asking me to keep an eye on you tonight.”

“Why? What’s wrong with him?”

Lady sighed again, quickly glancing around before herding him over to his dad’s car. “Don’t worry, I just jacked his car,” she told him when he side-eyed her. “Got to have some sort of payment after all.”

Nero scoffed. “Leech,” he muttered.

She turned her head to glare at him. “What did you say runt?”

He returned the glare. “You’re a money grabbing leech. Don’t try to say you’re not!”

“Just shut up runt,” she darkly muttered, throwing the car in reverse before speeding out of there. Honestly, he was more scared of her driving than anything else she could do; she knew full well that if she did something his dad would demolish her with absolutely no hesitation.

After a few minutes of silence and Nero half fearing for his life because she drove way too fast (and this was coming from someone who’s dad probably didn’t know what a speed limit was), Lady sighed again. “Today- or rather the next month in general- isn’t the best for him.” When he just gave her a confused look, yet another sigh escaped her lips. “It’s his birthday today.”

Nero was about to demand what that had to do with anything before his brain caught up to him and he realized why that explained everything. “Oh,” he numbly said, no other words coming to mind.

She glanced over at him, a little surprised from the look on her face. “You know?”

He looked down, kicking his feet, before slowly nodding.

The brunette let out a noise of surprise. “Really? I thought the moron would just keep it all in until he was forced to tell you. So he told you about the asshole of an evil twin he had?”

“Yeah, he told me about that Tepen-ni-stupid place.”

…Did Lady just growl? It didn’t sound like when he or his dad did… maybe it was because she’s fully human?

“That bastard told you about that thing?! I can’t believe him! He should have at least asked me instead of making an ass of himself and assuming!”

Nero just blinked at her outburst. “Wait, you were there? Dad didn’t mention that.”

Lady just stared at him for a long moment before slamming her head on the wheel. Thankfully they had to actually stop at a light because there were cars in front of them, so he didn’t have to fear for his life even more. “Dammit. Yes. I was. I am not talking about it, bug the moron for more details if you can’t keep it in. But yeah, it’s been almost eight years since then, and considering how weird Dante can be the next month, it probably wasn’t the only thing to happen to him in November either.”

The part devil just looked down at his lap and bit his lip. His dad had mentioned that that whole stupid tower thing had happened not long after his birthday, but he hadn’t realized that it was coming up so soon. And he had no idea where his dad was, so he couldn’t even find him and kick him out of his depression. Well, he probably could find him if he wandered around the city long enough, but he’d apparently told Lady it was just for tonight, so he’ll leave that for tomorrow if he still doesn’t come back.

Neither of them said anything for several minutes until Nero finally realized that they should have gotten home long before now. He looked up and saw they were about to enter some kind of apartment complex. “Wait, you live in an _apartment?”_ he asked incredulously.

“Huh. You’re smarter than you look.” Lady just laughed as he flipped her off. Why did he have to deal with devil hunters on a daily basis? They weren’t scared of anything he did! “Anyway,” She continued after squeezing into a parking spot, “I don’t want to buy out whatever the hell Dante did to make an actual shop and deal with all that renovations, so I got an apartment and made him tell me how to set wards up.”

“Um… the wards will let me in, right?”

“Why wouldn’t they- oh right.” After a few beats of silence, she continued, “We already passed them. Set them up around the whole complex, so something would have happened by now. Besides, I had to specifically adjust them to let Dante in after one incident where I came close to bleeding out because he couldn’t get in and had to take me over to DMC.”

Nero frowned as he watched her get out of the car, hurrying to grab his backpack and follow her. Not sensing anyone near that would overhear, he asked, “What happened?”

She just shrugged. “Ran into a lot of demons and was hard to keep track of them all. I can’t heal as fast as you guys and demonic stuff like blue orbs doesn’t work quite as well on me. Dante isn’t hopeless with regular medical stuff though, so he was able to patch me up and get me to his place. Took awhile to heal enough to leave though, so I just fixed the wards in case something happened again.”

The part devil just stared at her, shocked that she was so calm about it. She wasn’t telling him the whole story, he knew that, but she wasn’t hiding the fact that she had been hurt badly either. He bit his lip as he stood behind her and watched her fumble for her keys. “Is devil hunting that bad all the time?” he asked quietly. He hadn’t seen his dad get hurt besides that one time and that wasn’t normal, but he’d only been able to tag along for low level demon infestations. He also didn’t have any scars, but with their healing that didn’t mean anything, and Lady had tons of them.

Lady stopped what she was doing to stare at him. After a few moments, she sighed and knelt down in front of him. “It is. I wouldn’t let you tag along even if its only just a bunch of Hell Prides or whatever. But Dante, as much as he doesn’t act like it, knows what he’s doing. He’s more than able to protect you. As much as I don’t want to admit it, he’s saved my ass a few times with how protective he can be, and I have a feeling he’d be even more so with you.”

“Is he really that strong?” Nero finally asked what he’d been wondering for months.

“Yes. He acts like he’s a moron most of the time because he is one, but if you make him take a fight seriously… well, let’s just say it’s not common, but generally his opponent is in even more trouble than they were before.    I’ve seen him take out some strong demons without using that much effort, so you really don’t have to worry about him, and it can’t all be because his dad was possibly the strongest devil to exist. …If you tell him I said any of this, you won’t like what happens to you.”

Nero let out a sigh of relief. Lady wouldn’t lie about something like this. He followed her into her apartment, blinking in surprise at how… Spartan it looked? Was that the word? Speaking of which, is there any reason why his grandpa was called something so close to that city? From what he had heard from his dad, he hadn’t really acted like a stereotypical Spartan, so was he just thinking too much on it?

He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts, immediately crossing the living room and plopping down on the couch. Lady scoffed at him. “Brat. Did I say you could sprawl out on my couch?”

“You were going to let me anyway,” he muttered, burying his face in the fabric and frowning before looking around. Even apart from the plainness, something about the place didn’t really seem that lived in. Like, his dad’s room was pretty plain, but you could tell he spent a lot of time in there. Not as much as in the main office, but still noticeable. But here… he couldn’t tell if it was because of some weird demonic thing, but he could just tell that she didn’t really consider this a home. She did spend a lot of time at their place, but was that really why?

“You don’t have a lot of decorations or whatever up,” he settled on commentating.

She scoffed at him again. “What, you think I’m going to put up a bunch of demon skulls? This is just a place to crash after a mission. Don’t spend much time here.”

“Why?”

Instead of answering, Lady just kept walking over to a small kitchen, pulling out a couple sodas from the fridge and throwing one over to him that he was able to barely catch. He set it down on the coffee table without opening it, not wanting to get it all over the couch.

Lady sat down on the other side of him, fumbling through a drawer for something, finally pulling out a remote with a triumphant grunt. “I’ll order something to eat in a couple hours and then drive you home. Do me a favor and kick the moron's ass when you see him.”

Nero snorted. He didn’t need any prompting to do that.

After several minutes of cursing at the terrible choices on the TV, Lady turned it off and threw the remote onto the coffee table. “Please tell me you have homework.”

Nero scowled at her and flipped her off. He didn’t, but even if he did he wouldn’t do it around her just for that. She just rolled her eyes.

After a bit of an awkward silence, the part devil decided to ask, “So… what’s dad like when he gets mad?”

Lady blinked at him. “What? Oh. Well. It’s not pretty, I can tell you that.” When he just kept starting at her, she sighed. “Look, it’s terrifying. Outside of his healing, he acts more… human during a regular fight for lack of a better term. Get him mad and taking a fight seriously and you wonder how you forgot what his dad was. It’s especially noticeable since that’s the only times I actually see him Devil Trigger.”

“Wait, the only times? He does it a lot around me…”

“He Devil Triggers around you?” Lady asked, shocked.

Nero just cocked his head. “…Yeah? Why wouldn’t he?”

The brunette looked away. “He doesn’t like to. Around me at least. Thought he hated to in general.”

He frowned in confusion. “Not really. He didn’t expect me to beg him to trigger and play with me, but he doesn’t have any problems with doing it.”

Lady just kept looking away before getting up and walking over to the phone. “I’d ask what you wanted for dinner, but you’re just going to ask for Chinese, aren’t you.”

Nero nodded, still frowning. She was really bothered by this. Why? His dad admitted that he doesn’t Trigger all that often because of the energy drain, and he and his friends and to bug him for a bit to get him to do it when they wanted to play with him, so why was she so upset by this? Not even her ordering Chinese for him made him stop questioning this.

After finally getting sick of what to him was an awkward silence, the part devil finally asked, “Why are you sad about that? I have to bug him to trigger a lot so why?”

Lady started, head whipping around to stare at him. After a few moments, she shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“No it’s not! Just tell me!”

She glared at him. He glared right back. He wasn’t going to let her win this one.

Finally, the brunette let out that weird growl thing that wasn’t actually a growl to him. “Fine! I gave him shit for the longest time because I couldn’t fully accept what he was and it sounds like he’s still upset over it!”

Nero stared at her in shock. Of all the things he thought she’d say, that wasn’t one of them. “Why would he be? You’re like his best friend.”

She sighed, leaning back against the couch and staring at the ceiling. “It wasn’t always that way. We stuck around each other after the tower, but I kept him at arm’s length. Sure, he’d proven he wasn’t just an evil demon like the rest of them and I found out that he was part human too, but I still refused to let myself stop seeing him as nothing more than a demon for a couple years. Took him sparing a completely benign demon and us having a fight over it to make me realize what I was doing. I’ve stopped seeing him that way and by extension I’ve never even thought of you like that, but it’s probably left a mark.”

He stared at her some more. This was the most vulnerable he’d ever seen her and it was honestly more alarming than his dad being upset. After a couple moments, he scooted over and hugged her.

Lady instantly tensed up and he was about to pull away, but after a moment she relaxed slightly. Didn’t return the hug or anything, but she didn’t protest either.

They stayed that way until the delivery guy rang the doorbell and forced the brunette to get up. Once they had settled down to eat, Nero asked, “So, how stupid was my dad when you guys met?”

Lady snorted, thankfully not having any food in her mouth at the time. “You know how he’s a punk now? He was even worse then. Ran around without a shirt at the start of November too, just had his coat on, and even if it’d been warmer than usual it still didn’t impress me.”

“…Why?”

“I’ve stopped questioning him, it’s made my life so much easier.”

Nero hummed. She wasn’t wrong, his dad was just flat out weird. “Can you tell me some of the stupid things he’s done so I can mess with him?”

He received an evil grin from her. “Gladly. He needs his ego knocked down a few pegs.”

He returned the grin. Oh, this was going to be fun.”

* * *

 

A few hours and many conversations full of golden stories he'd be able to use to mess with his dad with later, Nero was back home, sitting on the couch and trying to focus on the movie he’d found. It wasn’t working, he kept glancing over at the door in hopes that he’d catch his dad walking in.

He caught himself yawning again and immediately slapped himself. There was no way he’d let himself go to sleep without seeing his dad come home safe. It’s not like he was going to get up early anyway, he’d be too busy kicking his dad out of his funk to even think about going to school.

Finally, at almost a quarter to midnight, the door finally opened to reveal an exhausted devil hunter. Nero immediately lunged out of his little nest of blankets to launch himself at his father. He latched onto one of his legs and started pounding a fist into his chest. “You dumbass!” he sniffed, trying to keep his tears in. “Why did you leave? Just because you had an asshole of a brother doesn’t mean you have to run off! I didn’t even know today was your birthday because you apparently can’t tell anyone anything!”

At that last word, he buried his head in his dad’s shirt and tried to will his tears back in his eyes. He’s supposed to be mad at him, not upset and crying!

After a moment, he felt an arm try to dislodge him, but he just held on tighter, shaking his head in a silent plea. His dad seemed to realize what he wanted, and one arm went around his shoulder as the other gently stroked his hair.

“I’m sorry,” Dante finally said softly. “If it helps, Rebellion has been nagging me all day about just running off and leaving you with Lady.”

Nero snorted a bit. “She must do that often then, given how much of a dumbass you can be,” he said, quickly wiping his face with his sleeve before glancing up.

The half devil opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a female, demonic voice saying, “You don’t understand how often. He rarely ever listens however, the idiotic boy.”

Nero immediately jumped back with a yelp of surprise (it was _not_ a squeal, it was a very manly yelp), glancing around to try and find where the voice was coming from.

Dante, for his part, just got a surprised look on his face before taking Rebellion from his back to stare at her incredulously. “You can talk to people other than me?”

The Devil Arm let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a scoff. “You think those two idiots are unique? Please. Most of us can, they just realize that the two idiots put you off the idea and only talk amongst themselves when awake.”

“And what about you? Shouldn’t you shut up too?”

“My name is literally Rebellion. Do you actually expect me to.”

Nero started giggling at the slightly annoyed look on his dad’s face, having quickly gotten over his shock once he’d realized where the voice came from. “It’s nice to really meet you Rebellion,” he said, instinctively about to stretch out a hand before remembering that he was talking to a sword.

Rebellion hummed. “And you, Nero. I like you, you actually have manners.”

The part devil blushed while his dad gave her a suspicious look. “When you say like-“

“No, I do not want to challenge him. That would require me to leave you, and you make far too many stupid decisions for me to not feel guilty about doing that.”

Nero snickered. “You really do dad,” he agreed, smirking at him.

Dante rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. “Just great. Now there’ s two of you abusing me. Three if you count Lady.”

“No less than you deserve,” Rebellion told him. “Now, go get your nestling to bed, he needs sleep.”

“Wait!” Nero exclaimed, grabbing his dad’s hand and dragging him to the kitchen, pushing him into a chair before rummaging in the fridge, taking out a fresh strawberry sundae he’d made about an hour or so ago and placing it in front of his dad. “It’s not much, but I didn’t have a chance to go get anything else because you decided to be stupid and not tell me when your birthday was.”

Dante just stared at the dessert, too many emotions written on his face for him to decipher. After several long moments, the man reached out and pulled his son onto his lap, burying his face into his hair. “Thank you,” he breathed.

The part devil just blinked in confusion. “It’s just a sundae?”

His dad just shook his head against his shoulder. “More than that. What did I ever do to deserve you?”

Nero rapidly blinked his eyes, trying not to break down again, and just clutched onto his dad even tighter. He kept wondering the exact same thing, and he doubted that he’d ever figure out the answer.

* * *

 

“This is where Temen-ni-gru was,” Dante said the next day as they stood on a roof not far from an abandoned lot.

Nero kind of thought he was stating the obvious. Apart from the fact that he was pretty sure it was the only actually abandoned lot in the entire city, there was just something... off about it, for lack of a better word.

He bit his lip, staring at the empty lot with apprehension. He could feel the faint traces of demonic energy coming from it. On one hand it repulsed him, made him want to get as far away from it as possible, but at the same time... he couldn't help but be drawn to it...

Just when he felt like he was just about to fall apart from the warring instincts, a gloved hand landed on his shoulder, making him turn around to see his dad giving him a sympathetic look. "It gets easier, don't sweat it."

"What do you mean?"

"You feel like you want to get as far away from that place as possible, and yet you still feel drawn to it, right?" When Nero reluctantly nodded, he continued, "That's the problem with having mixed blood. One part of you wants one thing, the other wants the opposite. Okay, that's simplifying things, but basically there's two different sets of instincts for some stuff."

The part devil looked down, brow furrowed. He didn't like that much, but he'll have to live with it, won't he?

He was startled out of his thoughts when arms went around him in a hug. "Don't worry," Dante said, pulling him into his lap and leaning his head on his, "I don't really find it hard to ignore the more demonic ones most of the time. Just don't listen to any little voice that tells you to do something stupid like tear down a building for no reason other than it smells funny and you'll be fine."

Nero relaxed at that reassurance. He still didn't like it much, but it was better than what he'd originally assumed. Though there was one more thing... "When you say little voice, you had better not mean it literally."

The half devil snorted. "Hell no. No split personality or anything, thank whatever. Nope, it's all metaphorical."

They stayed there for a little while longer, both content to just spend time with the other and ignore the well of demonic energy in front of them. After a few minutes though, Nero thought of another question. "Hey, so demons are attracted to this city because of this, right?"

Dante looked down at him. "...yeah? I mean there were still quite a few hanging around even before the tower popped up, reason why I decided sticking around was a good idea to begin with, but there's definitely been an increase since then and I don't have to go traveling near as much as other hunters to keep my head afloat. Why?"

"Why is it just you and Lady here then? If there's so many, shouldn't there be more hunters here?"

"Ah." The devil hunter shifted a little bit, seeming a little uncomfortable, but before he could tell him to ignore him, he said, "Well, first off, while devil hunters do have more of a tolerance for demonic stuff, the site of the Hell tower is still a little much for a lot of them. Lady is a major exception, but she probably got a full dose of the tower when it was actually up and the fainter stuff it gives up now is nothing, and even she tends to stay away from this part of town. Not that I enjoy being here either, but I don't have a problem like she does. As for another reason... well, I've claimed this area as my turf. Don't have a problem with passing hunters, but they tend to have a problem with me, and I tend not to like them much either."

"Why? Because you're half devil? Shouldn't who your dad was make that different?"

"Ah, but you're assuming they care. To a lot of them, a devil is a devil. Can't say much against that, considering how most demons don't care about humans at all, but that's not it. For one, I don't advertise what I am. Don't hide it, but I don't go around screaming it from the roofs. And I don't go talking about who my dad is even to the people who know or suspect. I already get enough shit from demons about that, I don't need more from humans. But nope, that's actually not the reason I don't like them at least."

"Then what is it?" Nero asked, starting to get a little ticked off with him avoiding the question.

"Generally, hunters are assholes," Dante finally just bluntly said. "Don't like for that single reason. Yeah, Devil Hunting doesn't lend itself to nice people, but I swear they take it too far. Can't stand to be around them much. Lady harps on me about property damage sometimes, but it really feels like other hunters just don't care about anything other than the paycheck and getting to shoot a couple demons."

"Isn't that what Lady cares about?"

"Well yeah, but she actually cares about more than just that. She cares about what they'll do if left alone and will take out any that pop up without pay if she sees them, she just likes getting paid for it. Other hunters... not so much, let's put it that way. There's some exceptions that I don't mind going and getting a drink with if I see them, but overall I avoid them, they avoid me, we're all happy."

Nero looked back down, frown still on his face. Why couldn't they just do it because they care and with no strings attached like his dad? What was so wrong just doing stuff for the sake of it? The worst thing was that he couldn't even ask about it because he doubted his dad had an answer either.

After another couple of minutes, Dante just stood up, picked up the part devil and walked away from the area. Said part devil immediately started struggling. "What the hell! Let me go! I can walk myself!"

"No can do kid, this is your punishment for not going to school today."

"That's cause you were being a dumbass and moping around yesterday!"

"I am not responsible for your actions."

"Shut up and let me down!"

(As you might have expected, that "argument" lasted the entire trip home.)

* * *

 

The next few weeks passed by more or less as normal.

Nero did get sent to bed early on November 3rd after having spent most of the afternoon and evening at the Johnson's house, but he got that more than his dad just disappearing. Apparently that was the eighth anniversary of the tower rising, and not only was it a hard day for both of the devil hunters in his life, demonic activity always seemed to increase that day, to the point where they'd gotten attacked a couple times just walking back home. Dante admitted he didn't mind all that much since it gave him something to focus on, but he still wasn't allowed to come with him on any actual jobs.

He'd pouted. A lot. He'd tried puppy dog eyes too, but that didn't work either. And he'd spent so much time practicing them in the mirror...

Anyway, as Lady had warned, his dad did seem off a lot during the month. Not to the point of running off, but he'd caught him spacing out with a melancholy expression a lot. It'd taken him awhile to finally ask about it, but he had finally gotten sick of not having any answers.

_Dante looked off for the longest time once he'd finally mustered the courage to ask. Just when he was about to tell him he was sorry for bringing it up, the man bluntly said, "My mom died sometime this month."_

_Nero immediately felt horrible for even asking. "I-I'm sorry, I'll just go and do-"_

_His dad stopped him. "Don't be. I don't even remember what date it happened on and I have the feeling it happened in the first half of the month, so I shouldn't even be this messed up the entire month."_

_The part devil just looked at him confused. He thought people remembered really important days like that. He would always remember his dad found him on June 18th, after all. "Why don't you remember?" He asked before he could kick himself for asking something like that instead of leaving him alone._

_Dante just turned away from him and headed upstairs. "I wasn't exactly coherent from then until about the start of December. No idea how long had passed, remember?"_

_Well, now he felt even worse, watching his dad walk up the stairs with guilt written all over his face. He needed to fix this, and that called for drastic measures._

_Ten minutes later, he nudged open the door to his dad's room with a fresh strawberry sundae and endured the cuddle fest that ensued. The things he put up with to help his dad..._

After that, he did all he could to help his dad through the month. Usually by kicking him into gear when needed. And making Lady do that on his orders when he was at school. It had worked the past couple of weeks after all, though he really hoped that the brunette wasn't being too mean about it.

It was a moot point for the next few days though, because he got time off of school. Which reminded him...

 "So are we doing anything tomorrow?" Nero asked as he walked down the stairs around noon, still dressed in his pajamas.

Dante just looked up at him in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing up? You went on a mission this morning I thought."

"Couldn't get back to sleep, now tell me. Did you skip school again?"

Nero rolled his eyes at him. "Thanksgiving break. We doing anything tomorrow?"

The half devil just blinked several times. "I forgot Thanksgiving existed, but sure, we can go to the store," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with his arm. 

"How did you forget it existed?" The part devil asked incredulously. He could get ignoring it because of the whole no family left thing, but outright forgetting it?

Dante shrugged. "Don't ever think about it. Though if you're expecting the whole generic spread, there's two things wrong with that: I don't particularly care for turkey-"

"Great reason, how will anything top it?"

"-and since you didn't remind me what tomorrow is until right now, there's probably only going to be the pathetic, tiny, and overpriced turkeys left that wouldn't even feed one of us. So, do you like ribs?"

Nero blinked at him. "Ribs? Really?"

"I've wanted BBQ for awhile."

"I've... never had them..." he mumbled, rubbing his nose with his hand at the shocked look he received. 

"You've never had them?! That's it, I'm making them and you're going to love them!"

He just rolled his eyes at that. Sure he and his dad didn't have very different tastes, but just because the half devil loved something didn't mean he would.

* * *

 

The smell of them sizzling the next day made him eat his words a bit though. Nero's mouth kept watering from the delicious smell, which wasn't helping him considering he was supposed to be mashing the potatoes.

Dante was standing next to him, humming some song he hadn't heard yet. He knew better than to ask about it though; his dad would start singing the song, and while he actually wasn't a bad singer, he'd sing it in the most ridiculous way and drag him into it. Not that it wasn't fun, he just really wanted to eat soon.

"Why isn't Lady showing up? I mean, you're making pie," he asked, setting aside the masher thing he didn't know the name for and grabbed a spoon. 

"I don't think she knows I'm making pie. Besides, I don't tend to see her this week. Don't know why and never asked."

Nero rolled his eyes. "You just want the pie to yourself."

"Hey, you're here, you're going to fight me for half. Now put some of the butter in the potatoes so they aren't completely bland," he demanded as he took the mac and cheese out of the oven.

Another eye roll, but he did as he was told. "How much longer until we eat? I'm starving."

"Another few minutes, these ribs are almost done, don't worry your tiny little stomach."

"Shut up! It's not tiny!"

Dante just snickered at him. "Go put plates on the table, those potatoes look about done."

Several long minutes where Nero almost started drooling over the smell later, the ribs were finally placed on the table, ready for consumption. He was about to reach for some when he realized he had no idea how to eat them. Playing it off like he was only reaching  his drink, he decided to wait for his dad to start eating before he did.

Judging by the smirk, the half devil realized what he was doing, but for some reason he didn't say anything and just grabbed some of the ribs for himself, breaking them apart and holding a piece with his hands before biting into it. "Be sure to avoid the bone kid, it ruins the taste," he said once he'd swallowed.

Nero cautiously took one and followed his lead, immediately digging into it once he'd gotten that first hesitant taste. It was just so delicious!

Dante snickered at him, making him look up to glare at him, even if he had to admit that it probably didn't work with the sauce smeared on his face. "You found a different favorite food than just Chinese yet? Wouldn't mind getting something else occasionally, you know."

"Says the guy that just orders pizza all the time," he scoffed, taking another bite. "Nope, Chinese is best, this is third."

"What's second?"

"Apple pie."

"Good choice kid. Still wish I could make it as good as mom could, but oh well."

Another few bites were eaten before Nero finally grabbed some of the sides, trying those. Not as good as the ribs, but that wasn't going to happen, so he dug into them anyway. "Did you guys celebrate Thanksgiving?"

Dante shrugged. "I actually can't remember. If we did it wasn't a big deal. Think mom made pie, but she made it other times so that's not a good indicator."

"So this is the first time you've really done anything?"

The devil hunter froze as he was about to scoop up some of this mac and cheese. After a moment, he continued with the motion. "Huh. Guess so."

Nero didn't have any clue how to react to that. He hadn't really had a Thanksgiving, but he'd thought for sure his dad would have at some point. Their childhoods had definitely been completely different, but at the same time there were still more similarities than he'd ever thought there'd be.

(He tried to ignore how that made him feel a little better.)

The rest of the night passed like normal for them. They bickered over who got the last of the ribs, fought over how there was no way Dante had cut the pie exactly in half, Nero bugging him to trigger and play with him, all the little things like that. About the only thing completely different was how the phone was unplugged, but even that wasn't something they never did.

At the same time though, something about it seemed different. Maybe it was how it was the holiday that it was. Maybe it was just his imagination.

Either way, as his dad caught him and hugged him to his scaled chest, wings instinctively twisting to cover him, Nero nuzzled up to his dad, smiling, for once the voice that kept trying to tell him this wouldn't last staying silent. It had gone quiet for weeks, but now it seemed like it had completely disappeared, leaving him to enjoy this moment of happiness without anything telling him it would all fall apart at any moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS STUPID CHAPTER.  
> First my computer shut off as I was editing and I lost it.  
> And then while i was editing on my phone i hit the wrong button and lost it.  
> So this isnt really edited, but I'm sick and tired of looking at it, so I'm sorry, but its staying this way for now. I was planning to go through and edit the whole story this weekend, so I'll just start with this one.  
> (Update: If you're seeing this, I went back and edited.)
> 
> I didn't expect the implications about Lady. They'll be followed through. ...Eventually at least. My plans keep getting moved around. The whole thing with the benign demon is definitely on my list though, so that should come sooner rather than later.
> 
> I realize there's no indication Rebellion can talk in any of the games, but the idea of her nagging Dante occasionally is too fun to pass up. I'm also going somewhere with this, don't worry.
> 
> It feels like the middle section is a little jarring, but I can't think of a better way to put it right now, so I guess it can stay.
> 
> Thanksgiving part is not really Thanksgiving-y, but oh well, it serves its purpose.
> 
> Next chapter will be a little different. It will sort of be several short stories rolled into one chapter. I don't really want to spend a lot of chapters and time to get to the next arc, but I don't want to ignore the next few in story months either, so here we go.


	11. One Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short look at father and son’s thoughts during the one year anniversary of finding each other.

Nero was disappointed when he woke up and nothing was different. His dad was still asleep in his own room, the main room was in the same state of dishevelment as it always was, and there was nothing special in the fridge waiting for him to consume for breakfast.

Of course he shouldn’t have expected anything for the anniversary of the day his dad had found him. His dad wasn’t great at remembering dates after all.

He curled up on the couch, hugging his legs and burring his head in his knees. No, he was _not_ going to cry about all of this. It was just a random day after all, it really wasn’t special.

Except it was. It was the day he’d been found. That made all the difference to him.

It didn’t even seem like it'd only been a year, but it had still been the happiest one he’d ever experienced. All those days sparing with his dad and learning how to use weapons, all those nights he spent wrapped up in his dad’s warm embrace with his wings wrapped around him, especially when it was freezing and the power in the area had gone out, getting more or less babysat by the Devil Arms, all the times they had just messed with each other throughout the year…

Nero tensed when he felt a hand touch his head, immediately lifting his head to see his dad look at him worriedly. He tried to jerk away, but hands landed on his shoulders to keep him there.

“Nero? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” he squeaked- no, he _replied,_ he didn’t squeak- trying his hardest to get away.

“Why are you so upset today of all days?”

Nero froze and immediately ceased his struggles to get free, staring at his dad with wide eyes. “What?”

Dante just rolled his eyes a bit. “Aren’t you the one who keeps track of all the dates? Like two months ago you celebrated the last time you had to hear that stupid priest because you’d make me shoot him if he ever popped up?”

“Hey! That’s a perfectly good thing to celebrate!” Nero shot back, heart already feeling much lighter at the knowledge that his dad didn’t forget what day it was.

His dad just snickered at him and ruffled his hair. “Anyway, I’m going to call in some pizza for lunch. Want to help me make the pie crust for desert?”

He eagerly nodded, jumping up and racing into the kitchen, his dad’s laughter following him, excited to spend even more time with his dad.

* * *

 

Dante couldn’t keep a small smile off of his face the entire day.

He had meant to get up before Nero and wait for him to get up, but his love of sleep got to be too strong sometimes. It seemed to be a genetic trait though, meaning his kid probably hadn’t been up too long before him, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

It had surprised him when he’d looked at the calendar the other day and realized it had been almost a year since he’d found Nero. He still hadn’t forgiven himself for not finding him before he did and probably never would, but it was still hard to believe that it had only been a year.

He snickered a bit, remembering the time they’d gone to the lake with Lady because it turned out Nero didn’t know how to swim. Lady had freaked when they hadn’t resurfaced for several minutes. He had really been showing his kid how their demonic powers let them stay underwater for longer, but messing with her had been an unexpected bonus.

That wasn’t even the only happy thing he loved to remember doing with his son. This whole year had been the most enjoyable he’d had since his dad had disappeared. Knowing he had someone at home that needed him and appreciated him… it made it easier to get through a job and actually _want_ to come home. He hadn’t felt that way the entire time the shop had been open.

As he watched his son try and decide which of his Devil Arms he wanted to practice with today since he was letting him pick, he couldn’t help but thank whoever felt like listening to a half devil that he had this time with his kid. He wasn’t going to pray for them to always stay this way because that would be pointless, but he was glad he at least had this time with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for the delay and how short this chapter is, it's been a long couple weeks and my motivation to write tons of fluff dissappeared ;-;
> 
> Anyway, this is the end of what I'm considering Part 1. I'll definitely write some side stuff of them being adorable during this time period, but for the main fic this is it. Don't worry, the start of the next arc should come out a lot quicker than this update, so you shouldn't have a two week wait again ^^


	12. From the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people have some demon problems and come to DMC for help. Normal enough, right?

Cass looked up when her husband walked through the door, face falling when she saw he was alone and just how drawn he looked. She sighed, glancing over at their baby and making sure she was asleep in the basket. “No one?” she asked softly.

Jason shook his head, not even bothering to take off his jacket before collapsing next to her on the couch. “The closest devil hunter to us would charge through the roof.”

The brunette wasn’t surprised. The only person who hunted demons that she had ever met that did things only out of the goodwill of their heart had been Tony, and as much as she wished otherwise, she doubted he would pop up out of nowhere after over ten years without a single word.

“We can’t afford to pay him,” she muttered, looking over at her husband.

“We can’t afford to leave either,” he replied softly, leaning forward and burying his face in his hands. “It hasn’t gone after Anna yet, but it’s a devil. It’s only a matter of time.”

Cass stayed silent for several long moments. She hadn’t wanted to try this, but they were quickly running out of options. “Up in Capulet, there’s a devil hunting business called Devil May Cry. There’s two people attached to it, and from what I’ve heard they charge reasonable prices for their services. I can take the train in the morning to ask them.”

“That’s several hours away. Are you sure it’s a good idea to leave for that long?”

“We don’t have many other options. It’s either let the nightmares continue until the devil gets tired of toying with us or take the chance that we’ll be able to bring back at least one of the devil hunters from that place.”

Jason sighed again before hugging her to him. “You have a point. Just get some sleep on your way there and back, okay? I don’t want you to keep surviving off of coffee like a zombie.”

She snorted but leaned into his embrace anyway. “I’m the zombie here? I’m not the one that took too long to realize Anna was crying this morning and thought that something was attacking!”

“I thought we had decided to drop that…”

“Did you think I would?”

He shook his head, but she saw the small grin he let slip.

They stayed like that for several moments before he broke the silence and hesitantly asked, “So, you’ve been looking around at different devil hunting agencies again?”

She sighed, knowing exactly what he was really asking. “I still can’t find a trace of him. It’s not the easiest, getting people to give descriptions, but none of the ones I’ve heard go by the name Tony.”

He sighed with her, closing his eyes and leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling. “Why haven’t we heard anything? Tony never was a subtle guy.”

“At this rate, I’m wondering if he was and we didn’t realize it,” she said softly.

By his silence, she figured her husband agreed with her. She doubted he was dead, he was too stubborn to go, but they hadn’t heard anything about him for years. She was wondering if they ever would.

Even if all they wanted was to know he was okay and get some sort of explanation as to why he’d left without a single word.

* * *

 

It had started out as a normal day for the two part devils.

Nero had been forced to go to school, Dante had taken a nap until he’d been forced awake by someone that thought they were a party company (how they had thought that was beyond him), and they had gone to get ice cream because who needs dinner when you can have ice cream?

The only bad thing was…

“Damnit, give me some of yours!”

“I’m not the one that dropped their cone when we walked in the door, this is my sundae, kid.”

“You’re the dad! Aren’t you supposed to do anything to make your kid happy?”

“I got you ice cream. I did my duty already today.”

Dante laughed as Nero predictably lunged at him with the intention to either make him give him a bite of his sundae or drop it to the floor. He managed to save the sundae for a little bit, but eventually the eight-year-old got in a lucky shot and managed to knock him to the floor, the ice cream dropping from his hands.

The part devil just smirked evilly at him. “Now we’re even!”

Dante rolled his eyes. “You need to stop hanging around Lyn, she’s giving you a sadistic streak.”

“Nah, you just deserve it,” Nero replied, getting off of him and bounding upstairs.

He rolled his eyes again, getting up and finding some of his cleaning supplies. Contrary to popular belief, while he wasn’t a tidy person to say the very least, he didn’t like blood or other sticky stuff getting all over his floors. It got annoying. He didn’t care about any of the dust or other shit though, its not like he or his kid would get hurt by any of it, and anyone that came over on a regular basis had given up trying to pick up anything at this point. He did make sure nothing dangerous got left around though, so he deserved some credit.

He yawned, about to put the stuff back in the cabinet, when he heard a sound that he didn’t want to hear with how cold it was getting.

He wasn’t the only one either. Nero came running down the stairs with a deadpan expression. “That was the heater, wasn’t it.”

Dante just looked over at him, an equally deadpan look on his face, before turning around and heading to their heating unit, groaning when saw that, yes, it did need to be fixed.

“Why is this place a piece of shit?”

“I don’t know kid. It’s been this way since I got it, so it can’t be my fault.”

“Maybe your bad luck just ruined it even before you got the place.”

“Pff. I got this place cheap, more like they just lied about how good it was. I mean, wouldn’t surprise me given this city.”

“I’m not dealing with the cold! Go find the number for the guy that fixes heaters!”

“Aw, but I thought you loved Devil Trigger cuddles when it was cold!”

“…Just find the phone number.”

“That wasn’t a no.”

Nero just growled a little bit before stomping to the desk and starting to rummage through the drawers. Dante snickered before walking over to help, ruffling his son’s hair, quickly retracting the hand to avoid the smack sent his way.

Things stayed silent for a few minutes, both of them just sorting through the papers silently, occasionally snickering at one of them for some reason or another. Unfortunately, someone had to walk in, and they weren’t closing the door behind them.

Dante sighed, not bothering to look up. “Look, can you close the door? Toilet’s in the back if that’s what you need, but I’ve got stuff to do, so if there’s anything else, we’re closed.”

“…Tony?”

The half devil froze, staring at the paper in his hands. _That_ voice saying _that_ name…

Half a second that seemed much longer later, he carefully schooled his face into a blank, uninterested mask and looked up. She looked older than she had last he’d seen her of course- it had been about ten years- but he could still recognize her. Smelled better too, like she’d been getting showers on a regular basis, but still the same scent he remembered from years ago.

Cass.

He wanted to ask her about everything that happened, apologize for leaving without a word, ask if she knew about any of the other kids he’d grown up with, but he couldn’t. They didn’t need the son of Sparda in their lives to drag them into all of the shit he goes through, regardless of how much he wished he could.

He felt more than saw his son look up at him worriedly, still crouched behind the desk out of view. He absentmindedly put a hand on top of his head, part of him surprised at not immediately getting brushed away while the rest was focused on maintaining the mask.

“Huh? What are you talking about? My name’s Dante,” he said, managing to instill the needed confusion in his voice.

The good news? Cass walked in and closed the door. The bad news? He recognized the look on her face. She had never been a fighter, but in a lot of ways she had basically been the group’s stubborn older sister. She didn’t let anything she felt was hurting one of them drop.

“Really? I can think of few people with white hair that loved red coats way too much. Nor of many people with that description that would go into devil hunting.”

Dante forced himself not to scowl. Damn it. He loved his color scheme and wouldn’t change it for the world, but it did make him recognizable. He’d just never thought it’d be to the people that knew him as Tony. He was a long way from the city he’d grown up in after all.

“A copycat? Guess I’d better have a little talk with him.” That’s right. Keep acting like you would usually. Thankfully, Rebellion was propped up on the side wall, slightly out of view- her hilt design had changed since then, but the blade hadn’t, so she may recognize her- and while Ebony and Ivory were lying on the desk, the sides that that name were engraved on weren’t facing up.

Unfortunately, Cass just folded her hands and gave him an unamused look. “Tony, drop the act.”

“Babe, my name’s Dante. I’m not Tony.” He wasn’t. He’d never been Tony, not really, but he definitely wasn’t now, and he couldn’t ever be again, as much as he wished he could go back to when his life was so much simpler, when he didn’t remember the legacy he couldn’t escape.

She opened her mouth, about to say something more, but was cut off when she noticed the third person in the room make a break for the stairs. (Dante had been surprised when he noticed what his son was doing- Nero was nothing if not curious- but he’d been grateful.)

Dante had noticed that Nero did look a lot like he had at that age. He just hadn’t thought anyone else would still be alive to notice.

Judging by the look on Cass’ face, she very much noticed.

They just stared at each other for what seemed like hours to the half devil but was probably only a minute at most. Eventually though, Cass did close her eyes before opening them and looking right into his eyes. “Fine, your name is Dante,” she said in a soft voice, “but look me in the eyes and tell me you weren’t Tony Redgrave at one point.”

Dante despised lying. Maybe it was some sort of devil thing because while they loved the whole “from a certain point of view” thing they didn’t flat out lie, but while he could, he hated it. They all had known that. And neither did she deserve him to lie after everything she had done for him, even if he didn’t want to open up this particular can of worms. It had been hard enough telling his own son, and he understood about the whole part devil thing.

He sighed, dropping his gaze and running a hand over his face. “Nero, go upstairs,” he said softly, defeated. He doubted Nero would actually go farther than the top of the stairs and was proven right when he didn’t hear a door close, but he couldn’t fault him that much for it and was just glad he was sort of out of the way.

The silence was deafening. He couldn’t tell what she was feeling- too many mixed emotions for that- but he doubted it was anything good. He’d just up and left without a word after all, who cares if she and Jason, the two that had taken him under their wings to begin with, had been working to try and save up enough to go to a few classes and get off the streets and weren’t there for him to have.

He wanted to say something, anything, to break the silence, but nothing came to mind.

Finally, Cass thankfully sighed and started, “To-“

“Don’t.” Dante breathed, screwing his eyes shut. “Don’t call me that. It’s not my name.”

“Was it ever your name?” she asked, and he could both hear and sense the hurt that she felt, making him feel even worse.

He sighed. “Technically, no. But I didn’t realize it.” When she didn’t say anything, he pushed on. “Not sure what you’d technically call it, but I had some sort of trauma induced amnesia and sort of created another identity. Only sort of because it’s not like I acted any different, but it’s as good of an explanation as I’m ever going to find. I wasn’t lying to any of you about it, I was really just l-“ he cut himself off, not wanting to get in any sort of conversation where she’d pity him. He didn’t deserve any.

She just kept staring at him, making him turn away from the pity in those hazel eyes. “And when you got your memories back you thought we’d care about that?”

Dante had worried about that, he wasn’t going to deny that, but… “Sort of.”

“What does that mean?”

He sighed again. “Look, it’s a long story, but it’s way more complicated than that.”

Cass just stared at him for awhile longer before she sighed. “I’d ask for an explanation, but you don’t want to give one.”

Not when Nero was in the line of fire. If there was one thing he would never do, it was put his son in danger of someone hurting him if he had any way to stop that from happening. “Maybe some other time,” he said, before changing the topic and asking, “So, I assume you came in here asking for some help from such a sexy beast of a devil hunter like me?”

Cass just stared at him for several long moments before bursting out into laughter. Once she seemed to regain some control of herself, she swiped at her eyes and said, “Yeah, name change didn’t do anything, that’s for sure!”

Dante didn’t say anything. He was a little relieved that she didn’t seem to be really mad, but he didn’t see it staying that way.

Thankfully, she didn’t seem to expect him to say a thing, and so just continued, “It’s a devil.”

“And here I thought you just wanted the sexiest guy ever to come visit.”

She rolled her eyes while grinning at his sarcasm, but sobered after a moment. “We’ve been plagued by nightmares lately. It took us awhile to realize there was something wrong and it wasn’t just us being overworked.”

…That did not sound good. Not a lot of devils could make nightmares happen, but the ones that can… “Did you notice anything else about this devil?”

“It hides in the shadows. We think that it has to be close to the victim, but we aren’t sure. It also seems to be able to control shadows to some extent.”

Great. One of those. At least he knows to take Beowulf with him unlike the last time he had to fight against a shadow demon. And to make sure to drink a lot of coffee before fighting said demon. He despises illusionist type demons…

“Anyone that could be caught in the crossfire I’ll need to worry about?”

His old friend just stared at him. “You’re taking the job?”

He blinked at her. “…Why wouldn’t I?”

“It’ll be awkward.”

Dante just shrugged at her. It would, but he owed them far too much to not try and give some of it back to them. Besides, a devil was a devil, and he doubted this would be one of the ones he felt comfortable sparing. “Seriously, anyone?”

She looked at him for several long moments before saying, “Jason. And our baby.”

“Wait, you two actually got together?” he asked, a little shocked. Pretty much everyone had thought they had something going on, but the two of them had been dense enough he hadn’t thought anything would actually happen.

“Yes. We did. I’ll spare you the details.”

“Come on, the details are the best part! Also, you had a kid? How the heck did that happen?”

“Sex. Sex happened. How did you get a kid?”

“Sex. Sex happened.”

They both snickered at each other. Dante couldn’t help but feel a little relieved that they could still mess with and laugh at each other. Probably wouldn’t last much longer than this mission given his usual luck, but it was able to help the awkwardness for a bit.

“So, where do I need to beat up this devil?” he finally asked.

“Miranda. It’s several hours south of here. We can take the overnight train, get some sleep before you have to tackle the devil.”

“Good idea. Those devils are a pain to fight.”

“Agreed! So how long will we be gone?”

Dante looked over to see his son standing at the foot of the stairs, smiling. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“Who’s going to watch me then because you refuse to leave me alone? Lady’s on that out of town job you refused to take because you’d be gone a couple weeks, Lyn and Ryan are at a neighbor’s house because their mom is out of town, and the heater is broken, and you don’t want me to freeze, do you?” Nero asked, shit eating grin on his face.

The half devil’s eye twitched. Trying to ignore the snickering he could hear from the woman in the room, he asked, “So you want to go deal with nightmares?”

“Not really, but I really don’t want to freeze either, so I think it’s the lesser of the two evils.”

“You have school.”

“Long weekend remember? They’re celebrating the guy you said ‘discovered’ America by being a complete and utter moron.”

And now the snickering was full out laughter. Great. Just great. He sighed, running a hand over his face, before finally saying, “Fine! Step one toe out of line and ignore what I tell you to do…”

“I won’t!” Nero grinned, skipping back up the stairs to his room.

Meanwhile, Dante turned to glare at Cass, who was still snickering at them. “I hope your kid is worse when they turn eight,” he muttered, stomping back to the armory to grab Beowulf and see if Nevan would pop out of her Devil Arm and call someone to fix the heating because she was the only competent one he had. Well there was Rebellion, but she either couldn’t or didn’t care enough to leave the sword, so it really was just Nevan.

Oh, and he should probably figure out something for him and his kid to eat before going. Train food was expensive. Maybe sandwiches? Those were easy to make. Then again, something harder to make would probably help keep his mind off of the sinking feeling he was feeling in his gut over letting his son come with him…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate this chapter and it hates me. It's a mutual feeling. At least it's out now I guess...
> 
> I'm really sorry about it being short and not having that much Dante and Nero interaction. I meant to have another section of Nero worrying and trying to help his dad, but I felt it flowed better if I moved it to the next one, especially since I'm planning for the rest of it to all be from his pov too. It left barely any for this chapter though, and is one of the reasons I don't like it...
> 
> Anyway, poor Dante. He keeps assuming the worst. 
> 
> Also, I'm planning some stuff with Nevan because she deserves more love. One will be a Devil Arms fic for this series, and the other... would anyone be really creeped out if I wrote a one shot pairing her with Dante? No shown sex because I'm not writing that, but just the idea itself?
> 
> I don't think I have anything else to say, but as always, feel free to ask anything in the comments or on tumblr ^^


	13. Proud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If there is one subject that’s not awkward for Dante, it’s his son he’s very proud of.

Dante really wished that he had looked up the train schedule before leaving of course the train they wanted wouldn’t leave until after nine. It was barely seven by the time they got to the station. He or Lady printed the train schedules every week for a reason…

Not that Nero was all that upset; the station had an arcade and his kid was enjoying using his reflexes to completely demolish any records made before he got there. Maybe he really should look into getting a console for Christmas. He had loved going to the arcade as a kid too after all, and it’d be fun playing more games even if he’d have to budget things more.

“How old is he exactly?”

He didn’t jump at Cass’ question- in his line of work jumping could mean pain- but he did startle a bit. He’d been to engrossed in watching his son have fun playing these games to even notice her sitting next to him on the bench. He really needed to work on that more; he could sense demons when he got like this with no problem, but humans that didn’t have bad intentions…

“Eight,” he said, looking over at her to find her staring at Nero as well.

She hummed. “He looks a lot like you.”

Dante just shrugged. He’d noticed that too. Guess the Sparda genes were strong. Or maybe it was the Eva ones. Either way.

They sat in silence for awhile longer. He was fine with that, but he could tell she was getting more and more uncomfortable with the silence. Well, if she wanted to talk she was the one that had to say something, and he doubted it would be much longer.

As expected, it was only a few minutes longer until she said, “He seems like a good kid.”

He snorted, leaning back with a smirk on his face. “Can be a little shit, but he has a good head on his shoulders.”

“Shouldn’t you use clean language around him?” Cass teased, grinning at him.

He grinned back at her. “Please, which one of us taught all the kids under ten to say ‘fuck’ that one night? Besides, the kid was already throwing the f-bomb at me when we met, so it’s a little too late for that one.”

“When you met? You didn’t know him his entire life?”

Dante tensed, only barely keeping himself from growling. Last time he’d done that in public he’d freaked out way too many people. “No. Whoever his mother was left him at an orphanage. I only found out when he was six and they finally found the paperwork.”

He felt bad about the dark tone he said all that in, but he couldn’t help it. That was something he wouldn’t ever forgive that woman for, and why he refused to try and figure out who exactly it was. The only one he’d ever be willing to talk to about whoever she was was Nero himself, and considering the vehement words he’d spat out when the school tried forcing him to make a Mother’s Day gift…

_“Why the hell should I make a gift for someone that just abandoned me?”_

Cass thankfully didn’t say anything. Whether she was judging him or just deciding to be tactful was in question, but either way he was thankful for it.

Dante grinned when Nero practically screamed in triumph as he got yet another high score. He really did need to get a console for Christmas. Soon as Lady got back from her mission he’d float the idea to her. She’d undoubtedly be all for it considering she was the one that usually took him to the arcade in Capulet. Though maybe he should look into any wards or spells to keep the controllers from breaking when they inevitably get mad at a game before bringing it up…

Cass chuckled next to him, clearly finding it just as amusing as him. “I see Nero is just as competitive as you.”

“Please, I wasn’t that competitive.”

“So I just imagined you using all the quarters you could find to make sure no one ever beat your records?”

“Obviously!”

(He couldn’t deny how nice it was to actually laugh together with someone that’s not Lady or Nevan or his other friends at the bar. Wouldn’t last even if things went well- Miranda was hours away after all, and he doubted either of them had the money to visit often- but even if it was just for the moment he appreciated it.)

“Do you still eat too much pizza?”

Dante side eyed her. “What does that mean?”

Cass just smirked at him. “What do you think that means? Whenever we managed to get a pizza, you ate over half of it if no one stopped you.”

“I was a growing boy, what’s the problem with that?”

“You’re dodging my question,” she teased, smirk still on her face.

He scoffed, trying his best to keep his lips from curling up. “Please, go talk to Nero. He has a thing for Chinese. He got it once and now that’s the thing he wants all the time.”

“I see love for a specific food is genetic.”

“If it was, he’d be in love with pizza- shit...”

“I’m glad you finally admitted it. The first step is admitting you have a problem after all.”

Dante let out a sigh, but couldn’t stop the faint grin that tugged at his lips. “You’re just as annoying as I remember, you know that? I pity Jason. Then again, maybe I don’t, he definitely knew what he was getting into.”

She snorted and shook her head at him, but her smirk still became a full-fledged grin. “At least you remember. Would be sad if you got caught off guard.”

He snorted at that. “Please, given all the women I know, I’d be more shocked if you weren’t.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, Lady and Nevan always try to make me do stuff, and both of them and some of my friends at the Bullseye bar tease the shit out of me. And bug me for pictures of Nero or to bring him around in the afternoon, but hey you can’t blame them for that, I mean look at him!”

Cass nodded, a pensive look on her face as she looked over at Nero rapidly mashing the controls of the game. “No, I can’t. He does seem like a good kid.”

Dante didn’t even bother trying to keep the smile off of his face. If there was one thing that always made him happy, it was his son. He’d given up on trying to keep it in at this point as it was pointless to even think about trying. Call him soft all you want, but that wouldn’t change anything.

“He is,” he said softly, still smiling as he watched his son. “Gets in trouble at school, but it’s mostly just because he tries to keep others from getting bullied. That’s actually how he met his two best friends, a little jerk tried beating them up and he ran between them. That’s the biggest example, but far from the only one. Yeah, notes get sent home of him being a little shit and mouthing off to his teachers, but those are actually rarer than you’d think. Good thing the principal understands because I’m not about to get onto him for trying to protect others. I mean, I’m teaching him self defense for a reason after all, and it’s not just for him.”

He blinked when he realized that Cass was just staring at him with a soft smile on her face. “What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. You’re just very proud of him, aren’t you?”

He stared at his son for awhile before chuckling and shaking his head. “Yeah. I am.”

At this point, he doubted that Nero would ever make him not be proud of him. Annoyed and disappointed, yes, but never that. He knew his son after all. He wasn’t that much different from how his family should be, and he would make sure that he never went through what he or Vergil did to change that.

He already knew exactly what line of business his son would get into. He wasn’t blind after all. He had mixed feelings about it for sure, but he knew that his son would uphold the family tradition of protecting the world. He’d more than likely do an even better job of it too, and he would do whatever he could to help him get to that point, whether by teaching him or by just being there for him when he needs him.

It was _Nero_ after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peaks in* I've been working on the Royal Guard technique please don't yell at me ;-;
> 
> I'm really sorry for the extremely late chapter and for how short it is. I just really needed to get back into writing this AU... Next chapter we'll be back to actual plot though, don't worry!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Proud Papa Dante!


	14. Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Father and son talking, and bonus bickering about possibly embarrassing childhood stories.

If there was one thing Nero absolutely despised about his heritage, it was the fact that some sounds were way too loud to his ears.

Like, normal people already complain about school bells trying to murder their ears, but it was worse for him. He swore that every single time one went off he went deaf for five minutes. If he was out of the building and on the complete other side of the street he still flinched because it was just that loud.  His dad didn’t have the same problem and he was so jealous of it, especially when he just laughed at him! Yeah, he did say he’d get better at tuning it out with age even if his dad did still flinch sometimes, but still! It wasn’t fair! There was no reason for those bells to be that loud! Even regular people think they’re too loud!

He had no idea how he was going to survive middle and high school if they had the same problem…

Anyway, while the train announcement thing was way less annoying than that fucking school bell, it was still more than enough to wake him up.

The eight-year-old ground, burying his face deeper into whatever he was using as a pillow and pulling his blanket tighter around his body. “Five more minutes…”

The pillow vibrated with Dante’s laugh, making him realize that it was apparently his dad’s chest he was leaning on. Damn it. At least Nevan wasn’t around with a camera… why had Lady decided to teach her how to use one and why couldn’t his dad put his foot down on her picture taking because he didn’t want his pictures taken that much? He’d seen enough of the convoluted blackmail chain between all the people he knew that it was never a good idea.

Blackmail aside, a nice warm hand ruffled his hair before prying him off. “I did give you a few more minutes than I could’ve. Cass got up and zombied her way to the bathroom and coffee line about eight minutes ago. Come on, bathroom. No idea when we’re going to get another chance to go.”

Nero didn’t care. It was too early. (He had unfortunately inherited his dad’s laziness after all.) Instead of complying with the hand trying to push up, he clutched onto his dad’s shirt tighter and refused to let go. “What? Kid, come on!”

“No.”

“Seriously, get up.”

“No.”

“If you don’t get up I’m carrying you to the bathroom.”

“No.”

“In front of all these people.”

Nero shot up at that, practically throwing the blanket into the currently empty seats on the other side of him as he rushed up so fast he was kind of surprised he didn’t get whiplash. “I’m up!”

Of course Dante just laughed at him and ushered him to the bathroom.

One relieving bathroom trip later, they had gathered up almost all of their stuff by the time Cass finally came back, took one look at them, and started muttering about hating how quick men’s bathroom trips were.

That done, they were finally able to leave the train. The train ride wasn’t that bad though. His dad and Lady complained about them all the time but this was actually pretty okay. Maybe it was because this one was overnight? They did usually take the day ones…

Anyway, they did have a bit of a drive until they finally got to where they were actually supposed to go because obviously the train couldn’t be the end of this trip, and Nero would have been more than okay going back to sleep if it weren’t for the fact that he knew his dad too well.

Dante, to someone that didn’t actually know him, looked like he was just napping like he usually did even though he needed nowhere near the amount of sleep he acted like he did. But even from the awkward angle he had from the back seat Nero could tell how tense he was. Hugging his dad to try and get the tenseness out like he usually did would be even more awkward than just staring and he wasn’t going to call attention to it because it’d probably backfire on him, so Nero just decided to sort of go back to sleep. He’d be able to hear if they started talking anyway (which they probably wouldn’t), so whatever.

Nero wasn’t entirely sure how long it was until they finally pulled up to the house and he got shaken out of his groggy kind of sleep but also kind of awake thing, whatever that was called. “What?” he whined, glaring at his dad’s smirking face.

“We’re here kid,” Dante simply said, about to open the door when Cass stopped him, getting out of the car herself.

“Going to go make sure everything’s okay inside,” she said, catching her bag with a smile when Nero threw it to her, having gotten into the practice of doing this all the time when he was in the car with someone. With the fact that Lady carried at least five guns in her bags at a time unless she was forced to go somewhere with metal detectors, it actually helped build up some nice strength. Soon he would be able to outdo his father in that area! Even if he was only eight he would! “Wait here for a couple minutes.”

Dante just waved her off and soon the sound of a door opening and shutting was heard.

Nero just blinked. “Why isn’t she letting us come in first? Didn’t she call ahead and tell him everything?”

His dad just shrugged. “Well, it was night by the time we got to the station, and she probably didn’t want to chance the demon overhearing her tell him they hired someone.”

“Uh… It’s going to be able to tell when it comes back tonight…”

“Yep, but at least it’d be in the area, and after that it’s simple enough to track it.”

“What about five months ago when you and Lady were looking for that-“

“That doesn’t count! We swore never to speak of that again! Why are you bringing it up again?”

Nero just smirked. “No, you and Lady swore. I didn’t.”

Dante just eyed him in annoyance. “Little shit.”

“That’s just mean. I’m your kid after all!”

His dad still eyed him in annoyance, but it was a much softer look than before. “True.” He grinned. “Doesn’t mean you’re not though.”

“Yeah, well, so are you!” Nero shot back, scowling. He knew his dad didn’t mean it in a bad way, but he still had the urge to bicker about this whenever it came up.

“Ah, but I’m not little!”

“No, you’re just freakishly tall!”

“Ah, but I’m not a little shrimp like you!”

“No, you’re just like Godzilla or something.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Sure sounds like one. I mean, the giant lizard is extremely cool. One of the best old movies for sure if you ignore the fact that they didn’t bother trying to match the mouth flaps.”

Nero just growled at that, trying his best to ignore his dad’s snickering. Thankfully, said very annoying snickering cut off soon enough, a thoughtful look crossing his face. “By the way Nero, maybe try to keep the growling down to a minimum. Can freak out little babies that don’t have devil blood like us.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“…So, if you actually make Lady my actual mom, and I got siblings, I could growl at anyone that tries to come near them I don’t like and they’d be okay with it?”

Apparently, it _was_ possible to do a spit take even if you weren’t drinking anything. Well, nothing came out thankfully for the poor, kind of beat up and old car, but the motions his dad made were the exact same.

“Nero, Lady and I are _not_ involved.”

“…Nevan, then?”

That just got him a Look that wasn’t effective because he’d been around his dad too long and he was immune. “Even more of a no. I’m not getting with Nevan either.”

Nero pouted. “But I like them…”

A sigh, and then his dad was reaching back to softly ruffle his hair, making him look up to see the slightly guilty and serious look on his face. “Nero… do you want siblings?”

He blinked, not really sure how to reply. “Uh… I don’t know?” he finally said. “I mean… it would be cool, but they’d also be whiny babies and I like sleeping.”

Dante outright laughed at that one, the serious look disappearing from his face. Good, Nero didn’t like his dad looking so serious and he’d probably get more than enough of it already with everything going on. He didn’t really appreciate getting his hair ruffled yet again. “Don’t worry, if you ever do get siblings, you’ll be the third to know. Maybe the second if I’m out of town.”

“You’re hardly out of town,” Nero pointed out, but he had to try and hide his smile. He didn’t even know if he really wanted siblings, especially ones that would be at least eight years younger, but the fact that he’d be one of the first to know about them if they ever happened…

Moments later, he decided that he liked Cass. She came back out right as his dad opened his mouth to tease him yet again. It wasn’t all that good though, considering how his dad got all serious again, but still. He wasn’t getting teased. That was a good thing. He got teased a lot. At least his dad wasn’t as bad as Nevan could be at times…

“Hey. Jason’s inside. Already warned him to keep things down so Anna doesn’t wake up.” She grinned, though he could still tell that she was kind of tense and worried. “Well, come on! Doubt the car smells that great, we need to buy another one of those air fresheners after all.”

Dante snorted, getting out of the car with Nero following closely. “So, he still gets excited and starts yelling?”

“Yep. You should’ve heard him when he found out I was pregnant. Still don’t know how my ears recovered from that…”

“Heh. Yeah. Swear I went temporarily deaf more than-“ the devil hunter started before being cut off by a…

Nero blinked, wondering if he was seeing things.

…Nope, his dad really was staring up at the ceiling confused out of his mind while a guy with light brown hair hugged him. “What the hell?” the quarter devil asked, blinking confusedly.

“Language!”

Dante snorted, trying to get up and failing. “Please, getting the kid to stop using language is hopeless. Can you let me up please?”

The man- more than likely this Jason- coughed and got up, offering a hand to his dad to help him up.

There was a bit more awkward staring before the man coughed again. “So… Dante…” he started hesitantly, voice becoming stronger when said devil hunter’s shoulders relaxed in relief, “who’s this?”

That got a real, bright smile from Dante. Having to repress a squeak of surprise, Nero found himself dragged next to his dad with his hand over his shoulders. “This, old friend, is my son Nero. He can be a little shit, but he can be a good kid, don’t worry.”

He turned bright red. “Dad!”

“What? It’s true!”

“You don’t say that!”

“Well, I did, so what about it?”

Nero just grumbled, rubbing his nose for a second before immediately retracting it when he heard the suspicious squee that someone tried to hold in and failed. He hated this habit of his but he couldn’t stop as much as he tried. The motion was too easy to do without thinking… “You’re Jason, right?” he asked, trying to get the attention off of him.

The man nodded. “Yep.”

“Apparently you yell loud.”

That got Jason to glare at the smirking woman in the room. “Why is that always the thing you tell people when you meet them?”

Cass just kept smirking at him. “Oh look, you’re not denying it this time!”

You didn’t need anything that even came close to enhanced senses to hear the sigh even if neither Dante or Cass bothered to hide their snickering.

After a few moments, they were ushered into the living room where…

Nero blinked, looking at the sleeping little blue bundle on the kind of old sofa that had more patches in it than their own back at home. “I thought you had a girl?” he asked, confused, looking back at the adults.

Dante sighed. “Kid, we’ve been over that. You can put kids in any color you want.”

“How would you react if I wanted to wear pink?”

“Given how much you side eye Lynn when she wears something pink, that’s not going to happen.”

“She looks weird in pink and hates it! She only wears it when someone makes her!”

“That she does, but still.”

Nero grumbled, but looked closer at the baby. She was… cute. Really tiny though. But mostly just really cute. Were all babies this cute? …Damn it he was sounding like a girl. In his defense he had preferred helping out with the smallest kids at the orphanage rather than most anything else they tried to make them help with, so he’d been around them a lot and none of the babies or little toddlers he’d seen had been ugly to say the least. Smelly and really, really loud, yes, but cute.

Of course, Cass and Jason had been snickering the entire time, until she finally got control of herself enough to walk over and pick up the baby. “This is Anna,” she said, smiling down at her. “Do you want to hold her?”

Nero stared at her, eyes wide. He did, but considering how other babies sometimes started crying around him if he tried to carry them… “Uh…”

She apparently wouldn’t accept no as an answer, and so just handed the baby to him, automatically adjusting his somewhat limp arms so the baby was comfortable.

Of course, the baby woke up then. She stared at him with wide eyes. Nero stared back, just waiting for the crying to start.

This went on for a couple minutes.

Finally, Jason took pity on his deer-in-the-headlights look and took the baby from him, patting her on the back as she gurgled, making him sigh in relief and do his best to ignore the snickering he heard from Cass. Even his dad was kind enough to hide his smirk… maybe he didn’t like Cass as much as he thought…

Before awkwardness could reign again, Dante decided to head to the bathroom and after getting directions left him alone with the two strangers.

Well, to his dad they probably weren’t quite strangers or he wouldn’t have left him alone, but still. He didn’t know them. And he didn’t really like being alone around people he didn’t know well…

So, Nero was just left to kick his feet against the sofa while he did the best to ignore the other two adults whispering in the corner. At least he wasn’t the only one feeling awkward about all of this, if the concern in their voices as they wondered what had happened in the over ten years since they had last seen Dante…

After a few minutes of that concern, Jason, being the one holding the baby at the time, headed to the kitchen to feed the baby who’s name he actually didn’t know because no one had mentioned it to him, while Cass sank down on the just as worn out armchair by the fireplace he kind of wished was on. Before he could say anything, Nero beat her to it and asked, “So, you knew my dad?”

She raised an eyebrow, a grin already tugging at her lips. “I did.”

He grinned at her. “You got any embarrassing stories? I want to mess with him!”

She laughed at that, long and loud. “Nero,” she said, a shark like grin on her face, “I’ve got plenty. What would you like to hear first?”

Before he could suggest anything, who came rushing in but the man himself? Dante gave the both of them dirty looks, obviously having heard what the subject was. “Kid, if you ask anything, I’m giving it right back to you, and believe me, I have plenty on you.”

Nero shut his mouth, scowling at his dad.

Good thing Cass wasn’t anywhere near as cowed as he was. “Oh, so I shouldn’t tell him about the time you tried to teach a couple of the younger kids how to dance and it ended up with Nell making you clean her whole back room?”

“How did that happen?” Nero asked, cocking his head in curiosity. Those two things sounded completely disconnected, so whatever that story was it must be really good.

“It doesn’t. She’s making things up.”

“Please. I’m not the one that decided they needed to learn how to dance in tight places and got the key Nell hid that no one else but you could find and trashed the back room.”

Dante glared at her, ignoring Nero’s snickering. “Like you can talk. Who knocked the bookshelf in the library over because she was too busy yelling at a character in a book?”

“Well, who was the one that got stuck on a roof because he was trying to avoid this one kid?”

“I was never stuck! You’re the one that got her foot stuck in the wall after kicking it too hard! We had to practically take the wall down to get it out, and I still don’t know how we didn’t have to figure out how to get you to the hospital!”

“Oh, so which one of us decided to teach Abel how to throw knives and almost took Sally’s bow off?”

“Please, that bow was hideous, he was trying to do the world a favor.”

“That’s no reason.”

“Cass, it was purple plaid. She kept wearing it with bright yellow shirts or jackets.”

“…You might have a point. Well what about the time-“

Nero could barely hear them over their laughing, but that was alright. He got the confirmation that his dad had always been a massive dork. And also nice tales about his dad as a kid because he didn’t really like talking about his childhood much for whatever reason, but mostly that confirmation.

(Who was he kidding, it was mostly the stories about his dad as a kid. He got tidbits every once in a while, but he really liked hearing even more. It really proved his dad was his dad in a lot of ways.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this chapter was something... I'm so sorry it wasn't that great or even all that long, I promise the next one will be much better and have more of an actual plot! So please look forward to that soon ^^
> 
> I would like to reiterate something: This story will NOT have any major pairings. This is about Dante and Nero as father and son, and I'm keeping it that way. Nero is pretty much just messing with his dad in this case.
> 
> That being said... I have given some thought to making a spin off since I have come up with Dante/Lady kids. It would not affect this story or any sequels, nor would it actually focus on that particular pairing, don't worry about that, I've just kind of thought about how adorable it would be to show Nero being a big brother. Haven't made any sort of decision though, and it would be awhile in coming even if it was just a bunch of loosely connected stories.
> 
> (By the way, anyone have any idea why my browser doesn't think Cass is a word or a name? It was just fine on word...)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Found [Gift Art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18126689) by [Biocopic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Biocopic/pseuds/Biocopic)




End file.
